The Bears have already spent some serious cash in free agency, but they are far from done. According to PFF's Brad Spielberger, they need to put more money to work in 2023 to meet the NFL's cash floor.
Normally we hear all about the NFL's salary cap, or the limit on how much teams can spend in a given year before they're penalized. But teams need to spend a certain amount of cash each year, too.
Spielberger does an excellent job of explaining the Bears' financial situation in the Twitter thread.
Remember, cash is different from cap. If you research the Bears' cap space as it stands, you would see they have $38 million in cap space left. Obviously, that wouldn't make sense as to how they would need to spend $45 million while only having $38 million left in cap space.
As Spielberger mentions in the Twitter thread, extensions and in-season spending count toward hitting this figure. Plus, the Bears don't need to meet that number before the season. They have until the end of the 2023 league year to reach the floor.
Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet and Jaylon Johnson are all extension eligible this offseason. That can add to the spending floor.
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This all goes to prove the Bears will inevitably make it. They still have the 2023 NFL draft class and the free agent market to sift through. Once players are cut closer to training camp, the Bears will likely be involved.
Last offseason, they claimed the most waiver wire pickups of any team, signing seven guys who were cut from their respective teams.
Don't fret. The Bears still have plenty of cap space to expend should they decide to make other moves in free agency this offseason. Their spending figures are mainly technicalities under NFL cap rules.