GM Ryan Poles' quest to overhaul the Chicago Bears offensive line is already underway. He found his first new starter in the former of Lucas Patrick, who will take over at center following his successful tenure with the Green Bay Packers. The team also signed veteran Dakota Dozier for needed depth. Now Poles intends to fortify the interior further with the addition of promising guard Ryan Bates.
Last season, the restricted free agent was tremendous down the stretch for the Buffalo Bills, allowing just four total pressures on Josh Allen in six games. Many believe he's a long-term starter who finally got a chance to show what he could do in 2021. The Bills are in the middle of a salary cap crunch. While they'd like to keep Bates, they allowed him to shop around with other teams. The 25-year old ended up meeting with the Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and New England Patriots.
In the end, he seems to have found the place he wants to go.
It isn't a huge surprise Ryan Bates chose Chicago. They have plenty of cap space to meet his price, but they also offer connections. The lineman played under Joe Moorhead in college at Penn State. Moorhead is the mentor of new Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. If that weren't enough, Ian Cunningham is their assistant GM. Cunningham was part of the Philadelphia Eagles front office that signed Bates as an undrafted free agent back in 2019. Such familiarity was no doubt appealing for the young guard. The question now is what the Bills plan to do. They have five days to decide whether they match the Bears' offer. Doing so will allow them to retain Bates. Current estimates say the team has somewhere between $2.5-4 million in cap space. So if the Bears wanted to dissuade them from matching, they'd likely offer a deal at $4 million per year or more.
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