NEWSLETTER
I wasn’t expecting a Chicago Bears trade on the first Monday of March, but here we are with the team announcing they’ve cut a deal with the Buffalo Bills with offensive lineman Ryan Bates.
Here’s the news straight from the team:
In a post announcing the trade, the team shares that it is sending a 2024 fifth-round pick to Buffalo to complete the deal. Another notable nugget from the Bears’ story is that the trade cannot become official until the new league year begins at 3 p.m. (central time) on March 13. Perhaps that explains why I was taken off guard when I saw the trade news cross the wire. But still … I need to chew on this one for a minute.
Trading for Ryan Bates means Bears GM Ryan Poles gets his guy
OK, so maybe that is NOT the trade you were looking forward to the Bears announcing. I get it. But let’s talk about the deal we have in front of us while we can.
If you are wondering why the name rings a bell, it might be because you recall that the Chicago Bears tried acquiring him in 2022. If you’ll recall, the Bears were trying to rebuild their offensive line. What else is new, right? Anyway, Bears GM Ryan Poles targeted Bates and signed him to a restricted free-agent offer sheet. But instead of losing him to the Bears in free agency, the Bills matched the offer sheet and retained Bates.
This is what we had to say when the Bates popped up on our radar as an offseason target:
Bates, 25, is a young player whose arrow looks to be pointing up. He has positional versatility and could be only now starting to scratch the surface of what he can do. However, he needs a team that can give him a clear path to snaps to prove it over a full season. I think we know the Bears could provide just that! Plus, they can do so in a way that wouldn’t prevent them from drafting a lineman who might need some seasoning before getting thrown to the wolves. Sounds like a potential win-win scenario to me.
And this is how we reacted when the Bills matched it:
Bates made so much sense as a Bears target. A young player at a position of need with positional flexibility, prior starting experience, and possible untapped upside that could be unlocked with an increase in playing time. And the Bears made sense as a fit for him too, too. Especially after the Bills’ signing of Roger Saffold to plug into a guard spot on Buffalo’s offensive line. Instead, Bates and the Bills re-connect on what is a four-year pact to stay in Buffalo. A four-year deal is pretty aggressive, so I’ll give the Bears that much. But a miss is still a miss. And it’s back to the drawing board.
Since returning to the Bills, he has played in 32 games and made 15 starts. But all 15 of those starts came in 2022. In 2023, Bates played a grand total of 35 offensive snaps. What is notable about those snaps is that they all came at center — a position the Bears are pretty desperate to fill. For what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus gave Bates a 78.7 grade for his efforts at the position. And while I don’t want to put too much stock in such a limited snap share, I suppose a good grade in a few handfuls of snaps is better than the alternative.
I’m not sure how I feel about the Bears trading a draft pick to take on a player who didn’t start a game last year. Perhaps there was a better way to use that pick. Maybe I’ll feel differently about it after sleeping on it. But as it stands the Bears have only five picks — two firsts, a third, and two fourths. We’ve seen this front office create Day 3 picks out of thin air, so I won’t freak out too much. But seeing this team, with as many needs as it has, with just five picks is a bit unsettling.
In the meantime, I’ll try to view this trade as Chicago’s football team plugging a hole at center. But I don’t think that’ll be the last move the Bears make on the line. At least, I hope it isn’t…
