The Chicago Bears have already adjusted things with new center Garrett Bradbury, whom they acquired in a trade with the New England Patriots this offseason.
Bradbury, a former first-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings, helped the Patriots reach the Super Bowl last season. He joins a Bears team that also reached the postseason, but they lost starter and Pro Bowler Drew Dalman to early retirement after the campaign.
On Thursday, the Bears’ plans for Bradbury got tweaked in a potentially telling fashion.
Bears’ Change of Plans With Garrett Bradbury Could Prove Telling
Garrett Bradbury Reworks Deal With Bears
The Bears sent a 2027 fifth-round pick to the Patriots for Bradbury, who arrived on the back end of a two-year, $9.5 million contract that he signed in free agency during the 2025 offseason.
“C Garrett Bradbury signed a renegotiated contract with the #Bears that converted $1M of incentives into guaranteed salary,” Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti posted on X on May 7. “The 30-year-old is now due $4.7M in 2026, with $3.7M guaranteed.”
The most obvious reason the Bears would have for doing this is to avoid a cap hit in 2027.
The NFL categorizes incentives in contracts as either likely to be earned (LTBE) or not likely to be earned (NLTBE).
LTBE incentives count against a team’s salary cap in the current year. NLTBE incentives, however, count against the following year’s salary cap once their specific threshold is reached in the current season.
In other words, the Bears are ensuring that Bradbury will be off their books in 2027.
This news follows recent remarks from an unnamed rival executive regarding a potential trade. The Bears also selected Iowa’s Logan Jones in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Athletic’s Mike Sando wrote on May 1 that Jones’ presence could make Bradbury a “logical trade candidate,” to which an unnamed executive said, “If I’m Chicago, I would not trade him until I know what I have with Logan Jones and know he is the guy.”
It is too early for the Bears to know that.
Bears Have Time on Their Side
They have just barely been on the field during offseason workouts, and that has not included the rookies, whose minicamp will be held this coming weekend.
At the same time, the Bears acquired Bradbury before they had Jones in tow. In fact, the Bears’ best internal option was 2025 sixth-round rookie Luke Newman, a guard by trade. So, the math that went into the initial decision to land Bradbury has already changed dramatically.
The Bears can still wait until closer to the start of the season to make their decision.
Head coach Ben Johnson will not see how Jones fairs against NFL competition in earnest until training camp, when the Bears could hold joint practices. Even then, the best test will be the preseason.
There are still plenty of potential outcomes, including Bradbury finishing out the string with the Bears and moving on after the 2026 season. The Bears have laid the groundwork for a clean break from Bradbury and transition to Jones, though.
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