Bears Insider: Tremaine Edmunds Exit Is Gaining Steam — Even If It Creates A New Problem

The Chicago Bears have some difficult roster decisions to make this offseason. They are over the salary cap, even with the ceiling rising to over $300 million. It is all but likely GM Ryan Poles and the coaching staff will make some tough sacrifices to get under the cap and in a position to retool the roster. Most of the discussions have centered around wide receiver D.J. Moore and whether they could trade him. However, it sounds like the big name who might be on a path out of town is Tremaine Edmunds.

Team insider Brad Biggs sounded pretty confident that the veteran linebacker could be on borrowed time after a disappointing finish to the season.

Linebacker looms as a likely need for the Bears this offseason. The front office will have some tough roster decisions to make as it weighs salary-cap implications. As good as Tremaine Edmunds played in the first half of the season before a groin injury forced him to spend four weeks on injured reserve, he could be a potential cap casualty.

Edmunds was signed to a four-year, $72 million contract in 2023, and he has a $13.9 million base salary for 2026 with a $1 million roster bonus and $100,000 workout bonus for a total of $15 million in cash. If the Bears release him, they would create $15 million in cap space, and as much as they like a defender with such a good combination of height, length and range at the second level, his status looks tenuous from my vantage point.

This move isn’t overly surprising.

First and foremost, Edmunds was not acquired by the current coaching staff. He was a primary addition by Matt Eberflus to play in a different scheme. Dennis Allen likely has different requirements from his linebackers, which would explain why the Bears moved Edmunds out of the middle. It worked well at first, resulting in 83 tackles, a sack, and four interceptions across ten games. Then Edmunds got hurt. When he returned after a month, he didn’t have the same impact as before.

Tremaine Edmunds wasn’t helped by D’Marco Jackson.

The former undrafted free agent, who has been a backup his entire career, stepped in after he got hurt. Jackson had 30 tackles, a sack, and an interception in four starts, looking competent and effective in his role. Some even said the defense lost some of its mojo after the Bears benched Jackson once Edmunds returned. If Allen and the coaches saw the same thing, it isn’t hard to understand why they’d be willing to make changes. He just isn’t a fit for the type of scheme this staff wants to run.

While understandable, the fact is that releasing Tremaine Edmunds will reorient the Bears’ offseason plans. Up until now, the defensive line and safety have been easily the two biggest issues to address this spring. Cutting Edmunds and Noah Sewell hitting free agency makes linebacker a much bigger priority. We could see the team hit the position earlier than expected in the draft while also looking for solutions in free agency.