Getty The Bears should try to trade for Bills WR Gabriel Davis in 2023.
For largely fiscal reasons, the Chicago Bears stayed away from trading for or signing as a free agent any big-name wide receivers in 2022.
First-year general manager Ryan Poles had limited salary cap space and couldn’t have added much top-tier talent to any position group if he wanted to. At present, the Bears have just over $7.3 million in cap space, per Over the Cap, but in 2023, they’re set to lead the league in available funds with over $107 million.
Next year, the free agent market isn’t set to be on fire, but there could be opportunities for the Bears to trade for talented players set to be free agents in 2024. At the top of Chicago’s wish list should be offensive line and wide receiver, and one analyst compiled a list of trade possibilities for Poles at wideout, with the Buffalo Bills‘ Gabriel Davis the most intriguing option of the bunch.
Davis Is Exactly the Kind of WR Bears Need
The NFL’s trade deadline this season is November 1, 2022, so don’t expect any big moves from Chicago soon. Windy City Gridiron’s Jacob Infante thinks the Bears will “try to trade” for a wideout in the future, though, and he floated a list of players that are currently set to be free agents in 2024 as potential options:
The #Bears have a weak 2023 WR free agent class to choose from, but I think they try to trade for a 2024 FA:
• Mike Evans
• Tee Higgins
• Michael Pittman Jr.
• Calvin Ridley
• Gabriel Davis
If this year’s WR trades were any indication, some of these guys could be traded.
The 23-year-old receiver was a fourth-round pick for the Bills out of Central Florida in 2020, and after catching 35 passes for 599 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie, Davis became a favorite target of quarterback Josh Allen in 2021, particularly in the postseason.
The young wideout caught 35 passes for 549 yards and six scores in 16 games, but it was his breakout performance in Buffalo’s divisional round loss at Kansas City that put the league on notice. Davis ate K.C.’s secondary alive, hauling in eight passes for 201 yards and four touchdowns in the Bills’ 42-36 loss. He looked virtually unstoppable throughout the game.
Gabriel Davis just put a Chiefs DB in a body bag 👀
Davis also started his 2022 campaign off on a high note, catching four passes for 88 yards and a TD in the Bills’ Week 1 win over the Los Angeles Rams. He missed his first-ever game Week 2 with a sprained ankle, but that shouldn’t keep him out for long.
Bears Will Have Cap Space to Make Major Moves in 2023
Davis is in the third year of his rookie contract, and he’ll be eligible for an extension when the season concludes. He has a clear knack for getting open and finding the end zone, and he has already shown he can perform well on a big stage.
After doling out extensions to Allen (six years, $258 million) and All-Pro wide receiver Stefon Diggs (four years, $96 million), among others, the Bills are set to be toward the bottom of the league in cap space in 2023. While the Bears will have more money to spend than any other NFL team (the next closest to Chicago’s $107 million is the New England Patriots, who will have just over $58 million in cap space), the Bills are currently in the red.
This will change at some point, but the Bills are currently sitting at $1,559,884 below the cap. Regardless of what moves Buffalo might make, the Bears would be able to pick up the phone and make an offer next year — if they’re interested in Davis, of course. But considering the team’s lack of depth in the wide receiver department, there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t want to spend some of their cap on weapons for quarterback Justin Fields.
“I won’t put a ceiling on Gabriel Davis, I can’t say how good he could be because he’s already displayed that he can play, flat out,” Diggs said in April of 2022, via NFL.com. “Flat out, he can play, and he can make plays at a high level. He can catch contested balls and be a receiver, he can run, so he has all the intangibles of being one of the best receivers in the game.”
Diggs is correct — and that’s why the Bears should be looking Davis’ way next year.