Bears make the first of many easy offseason decisions by parting ways with one of Ryan Poles' 2024 free agent signings
The Chicago Bears are slated to enter the offseason with nearly $70 million in available cap space based on the new projections and have options to create even more space before the start of free agency. And the team is already exercising some of those options.On Friday, the Bears informed tight end Gerald Everett that […]
The Chicago Bears are slated to enter the offseason with nearly $70 million in available cap space based on the new projections and have options to create even more space before the start of free agency. And the team is already exercising some of those options.
On Friday, the Bears informed tight end Gerald Everett that he will be released, the first known cap causality for the team. The decision to release Everett will save the Bears $5.5 million in salary cap space.
Everett lasted just one season into a two-year, $12 million contract he signed with the team last offseason in free agency.
The decision to sign Everett looked like a great one at the time. By signing the veteran tight end, the Bears hoped to add an athletic second option to the position behind Cole Kmet and reunite him with his former offensive coordinator in Shane Waldron.
It's not Everett's fault that Waldron was fired less than 10 months after being hired by head coach Matt Eberflus. But the level of production he showed, or lack there of, definitely falls on Everett's shoulders.
He finished his lone year in Chicago with eight receptions for 36 yards and zero touchdowns despite playing all 17 games and 22% of the team's offensive snaps. When you factor in Everett's two penalties into the equation, his season looks even worse.
According to Pro Football Focus, Everett had the lowest offensive PFF grade (42.9) among all Bears' pass catchers. That same grade was the seventh-worst among all tight ends across the entire league.
But somehow, that signing gets even worse for the Bears. Due to the cost of his contract, the Bears missed out on earning a 4th-round 2025 compensatory pick for losing Darnell Mooney to Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Chargers gained a 6th-round 2025 compensatory pick for losing Everett because of how much the Bears paid for him.
This was all around another bad free agent signing by general manager Ryan Poles that failed to live up to any expectations. Good news is, the team has moved on and freed up a lot of room in the process.
