By Adewale Apata
Ryan Pace decided that Willie Young and Pernell McPhee were too old, injured and expensive, so he released them to accumulate more salary cap space. According to Over The Cap, Ryan Pace will have over $77 million dollars in cap space to spend after Mike Glennon is released. The problem with that is; talented, healthy and young edge rushers rarely avoid that franchise tag. Free agent sack artist Ziggy Ansah from the Lions and Demarcus Lawrence from the Cowboys both received franchise tags and won’t hit free agency.
2016 9th overall Bears draft pick Leonard Floyd is an emerging edge rusher to build around. He has contributed with 11.5 sacks in 22 regular season games. However, his durability will be questioned since he missed 10 games in his 1st two seasons due to a concussion and neck injury in 2016 and sprained MCL and PCL in 2017.
Sam Acho is an unrestricted free agent that the Bears should bring back to provide veteran leadership off the bench. Lamar Houston is also an unrestricted free agent but the Bears are unlikely to re-sign the injury prone 30 year old vet. Isaiah Irving is coming off his rookie year as an undrafted free agent and showed some promise in the 2017 preseason with 3 sacks.
But the Bears brain trust has got to find Floyd much more reliable long term help on his opposite side. Unfortunately, this year’s edge rusher free agent class is so bleak, Pace may want to seriously think about bringing back Pernell McPhee or Willie Young. If not, he may have to get creative with a trade. Don’t be surprised if the Bears draft 2 OLBs and never rule out the possibility of Ryan Pace signing a salary cap casualty during training camp or the preseason.