It’s a great year for the Chicago Bears to have a safety need

This offseason is shaping up nicely to fill Chicago’s needs.

With long-time Chicago Bears free safety Eddie Jackson being released a few weeks ago, the Bears have a huge need at that position this spring. This could very well be an opportune time for the Bears or any other team to have a need at safety.

In the last few weeks, we have seen a number of safeties, many of whom are still very good players, released by their teams, mostly for salary cap purposes. This has left a glut of safeties available in the free agent market that opens next week.

Besides Eddie Jackson, other released players include Jamal Adams, Justin Simmons, Quandra Diggs, Kevin Byard, Jordan Poyer, Rayshawn Jenkins, and Micah Hyde. The Saints will release Marcus Maye after this Wednesday with a post-June 1st designation, but he can be signed any time after his release. While most players are 30 or older, they still have several years of quality football to play.

This group adds to an already strong group of safeties who will hit free agency this coming week. This group is much younger and includes Geno Stone (Ravens), Xavier McKinney (Giants), Julian Blackmon (Colts), Darnell Savage (Packers), and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (Detroit).

There is an obvious glut of safety on the market, and that means one thing: they can be signed for a relatively inexpensive price. Thursday, the Saints re-signed quality safety Tyron Mathieu for just two years and $13M total. That was one of the sure signs of a weak market to come.

In the last few days, I talked to two different agents and a General Manager, and they all said the same thing… ”Safeties can be signed for a lot less money than was thought a month ago.” This is good news for the Bears, who have a need and now won’t have to commit as much money as initially thought.

Both of the agents I talked to said that because of the glut of safeties on the market, they would be very reluctant to do long-term deals. One said he would only do 1-year deals and then have their players hit free agency again, hoping the market would be better.

The other agent said he was open to a one or two-year deal but not any longer unless he felt a longer-term deal was in the best interest of his client. His thinking is the same as the first agent’s: It’s better to do a short-term deal and hit free agency again soon.

A few of the UFAs available could command higher four or five-year deals, and they are Geno Stone and Xavier McKinney. Both their age and production would warrant a longer-term contract. Clubs, on the other hand, may balk at a high-priced long-term deal because they know they will have other options.

The general manager I spoke to said that he believes that the majority of the safety signings will be short-term, team-friendly deals. All this is good news for the Chicago Bears as a less expensive deal will mean more money available to sign need players at other positions. Add that to the team-friendly first-year cap figure on the recent Jaylon Johnson contract, and the Bears are in great shape with the negotiation window opening on Monday morning.

As I have stated several times in the last week, I am not about to believe any names I hear tied to the Bears in free agency because last year, no player who the media tied to the Bears ended up signing with Chicago. That said, non-media people do tie a player to Chicago. That player is the Colts’ Julian Blackmon. Blackmon played for Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus in Indianapolis in 2020 and 2021. Blackmon suffered an Achilles tear in week 6 of the ’21 season but has returned strong. His 2023 was his best as he recorded 88 total tackles, eight passed defensed and four interceptions. Three things that stand out about Blackmon on tape are his instincts, tackling ability, and ball skills. All traits that are very important to play free safety in the Bears scheme. We’ll know soon enough if he becomes a Bear.