Bears Free Agency Freeze Likely Due to Overlooked Deadline

Right now the Bears roster is looking better than it has in years, at least on paper. Except there's one lingering problem. It's still incomplete. According to their team website, they still have just 74 players signed under contract. That means there are 16 slots left open of the 90 available. This is why many are curious as to why the Bears free agency maneuvers suddenly went silent. Despite their big rush of signings back in March, they still have over $28 million in salary cap space. They have plenty of money to continue making moves if they wish. Not only that but it appears there are still a number of quality free agents on the market. Certain names that could be a big help to them if they decided to make a move. So why haven't they? It may actually have to do with one of the most overlooked deadlines of the NFL off-season. One that has a bigger than expected impact on what will happen in the years to come. That is the NFL draft compensatory pick deadline.

Bears free agency likely waited for compensatory deadline to pass

For those who forgot, every year 32 "compensatory" picks are given to certain NFL teams. This is done by determining certain unrestricted free agents who qualify for being worth such tags.

"Using a proprietary formula, the league defines a class of unrestricted free agents as "compensatory free agents ("CFA"). Teams that have lost more or better compensatory free agents than they signed in the previous year receive picks somewhere in the third through seventh rounds."

Teams that lose prized players without replacing them in free agency are awarded these picks. That's why Green Bay and Pittsburgh are often teams that are awarded more compensatory picks than most. They typically don't spend much in free agency. However, teams are also learning there's a certain value to waiting on certain names. For weeks people have wondered why so many notable players remain available despite clearly having high value. The simple reason is they are tied to the compensatory selection process.

"When 4:00 PM Eastern time on Tuesday (May 8th) came and went, so did one of the NFL’s quiet but notable deadlines. Today was the final day for signings of unrestricted free agents to affect the compensatory draft pick formula, which means that there may be an uptick in the number of players signing contracts in the next few days and weeks."

By waiting the process out, teams are now able to secure those quality free agents without fear of it affecting their compensatory pick plans in the future. Given how much the Bears spent in free agency this year it will affect them less than other teams but with this deadline passed it's likely they may have one or two more notable signings in mind. Names like Eric Reid, Bashaud Breeland, Kenny Vaccaro, Johnathan Hankins and Kayvon Webster remain available. Any of them could be a big help to Chicago.