Where all the Bears' money went compared to rest of the NFL

It’s still not more relatively than they pay for wide receivers. Even with Keenan Allen and his $23 million cap hit gone, the Bears are spending the third-highest amount on wide receivers at $35.8 million. The $24.9 million cap figure for DJ Moore eats up the huge majority of it.

The addition of Jonah Jackson, Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman and Ozzy Trapilo helped bring the Bears' offensive line spending to $67.03 million, which is the fourth most in the NFL. They're not running anywhere close to Carolina, which has dumped a whopping $96.05 million into its line to protect Bryce Young. The Chiefs are right up there, too, in second at $84.09 million.

Considering Caleb Williams is in Year 2, it still makes sense for the spending to be a little heavier on defense.

Only five teams pay less than the Bears for their quarterbacks, which explains how they can rank so high in spending for line, tight ends, wide receivers and running backsm but not be among the league’s teams spending the most on offense.

Defensively, Poles absorbed criticism two years ago when they spent wildly for Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards at linebacker. Now, after two seasons, it looks like he had foresight because spending on the position in the league has generally declined.

No team has signed a linebacker to a bigger contract than the one Roquan Smith got from Baltimore and that was given to him in January after he was traded in 2022.

Linebackers are the new running backs. They're considered disposable in this league now.  The Bears now pay less for their linebackers in relation to the rest of the league than they do any other position group. They are 17th in paying for linebackers at $29.96 million, the bottom half of the league.

The Bears spend the fourth most on secondary players ($46.43 million) and fifth most on the defensive line ($56.99 million).

It all adds up to the second-most money in the league spent on defense, $108.87 million, and the 12th most spent on offense at $89.9 million. The thing will flip when Williams is in line for his extension.

The Bears are planning for that eventuality, but it's up to Williams to make it a reality and he's got the next two seasons to do it with bigger numbers before his fifth-year option becomes an issue.

Teams like the Vikings, Falcons, Broncos, Commanders, Patriots and Bears, with quarterbacks in their first contract, must push forward as far as they can while the cap advantage is on their side in the quarterback ledger. They need the advantage to be realized on the field.