The Chicago Bears are operating in a different space than they have in recent seasons, coming off a winning season but navigating salary cap constraints that will put general manager Ryan Poles’ roster-building skills to the ultimate test.
How do the Bears improve and, just as importantly, retain their top talent, while keeping themselves flexible?
They received some much-needed context on Friday.
NFL Delivers Critical Updates for Bears
Darnell Wright 5th-Year Option Revealed
The NFL announced that the salary cap will surpass $300 million for the first time in NFL history. Over The Cap updated every team’s projected salary cap status for the 2026 offseason as a result. Poles’ Bears still have the seventh-fewest cap dollars to spend.
They have mechanisms in place to create more space and have already welcomed or garnered trade interest in several players on the current roster that would free up even more wiggle room.
Wiggle room that could be used to secure Darnell Wright long-term.
The NFL also announced the fifth-year option values for the 2023 draft class. Wright was the 10th overall pick. He has started all 49 of the games he has played since being drafted, missing one game in each of the past two seasons.
Wright’s fifth-year option on what is a four-year, $20.9 million contract is $19.1million. That is due to his hitting the playing time threshold.
5th-Year Option Offers Glimpse for Darnell Wright
“Teams making decisions about picking up the fifth-year options on the contracts of their 2023 first-round picks now know how much that will cost,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote on February 27.
“The NFL revealed the values on Friday afternoon. There are four levels of compensation at each position. Players who have made multiple Pro Bowls as an original selection are at the top followed by players with one Pro Bowl selection and players who have hit playing time milestones before reaching the lowest level.”
The fifth-year option, like the franchise and transition tags, only delays the inevitable.
Spotrac projected Wright’s market value at $19.5 million annually, offering a three-year, $58.3 million deal as an example of what he might command.
The Bears will need to decide if and when they want to extend Wright. They must plan for that in whatever other moves they plan on making. That is just as Poles acknowledged they have to do with quarterback Caleb Williams, albeit to a lesser extent.