Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune reminds us that the window for the Bears to pick up their 2018 option on guard Josh Sitton begins Friday. The decision must be made before March 9.
Sitton is arguably the Bears most consistent offensive lineman but he’s going to be 32 next season and missed 3 games last year with injuries. The option is for $8 million including bonuses and his dead cap number is only $666,667. The Bears have plenty of cap space.
In my opinion it would be a mistake to fail to pick up this option. Not doing so creates another hole in the lineup on a team that already has a lot of holes to fill.
Many fans would like to see the Bears spend their first round pick on former Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson, who might be the best player in the draft. However, it’s hard to justify using that pick to replace a good veteran guard rather than to fill an existing need. It’s also no guarantee that Nelson will be there for them at the 8th overall pick even if they wish to do so. If the Bears wish to plan for the future at the position, they should either pick up a guard in the later rounds to develop or concentrate on getting something out of 2017 fifth round pick Jordan Morgan, who lost his rookie season to shoulder surgery last year.
The only way I see this happening is if the Bears sign Sitton, draft Nelson, then trade Sitton for another pick in the draft. It seems unlikely that they could pull that off and it wouldn’t be a great way to treat a veteran player. The Bears have typically avoided those sorts of moves.
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