Bears' Top Trade Targets Entering 2021 NFL Offseason

The Chicago Bears were good enough to make the postseason in 2020, but they were quickly ousted by the New Orleans Saints on Wild Card Weekend.

The Bears have decided to bring back head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace for another season. Whether they stay beyond 2021 will depend largely on how the team fares in the coming year. An 8-8 record may not be good enough to reach the playoffs again, and the front office has some work to do to improve the roster.

With quarterback a huge question mark and star wideout Allen Robinson II set to hit free agency, trades may have to be part of the equation.

Here we'll examine three prime trade targets that Chicago should consider this offseason. Factors like team need, proven player production and team fit will be considered. However, these deals are largely hypothetical at this point in time.

Chicago is projected to be more than $10 million over the salary cap, meaning any trade would first require some serious salary management.

Deshaun Watson

Sam Craft/Associated Press

Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky will probably only be back if Chicago cannot find an upgrade at the position. They have already looked into one trade to find it. According to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport, Chicago was one of several teams that looked into acquiring Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions.

Stafford, of course, landed with the Los Angeles Rams. However, this doesn't mean that Chicago should be ready to give up on trading for a signal-caller. Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson wants out of his current situation, and he might be available for the right price.

"They'll want 2 ones, 2 twos and 2 young defensive starters, at the least," John McClain of the Houston Chronicle tweeted.

While the price tag for a Watson deal is steep, the Bears have shown in the past that they are willing to pay heavily for an elite player—they gave up multiple high draft picks to acquire Khalil Mack—and they might do so again.

While Chicago would have to clear cap space to fit in Watson's $15.9 million cap hit for 2021, it's not as outlandish as one might think.

Gardner Minshew II

Gary McCullough/Associated Press

The Bears already took a chance on one former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback when they traded for Nick Foles. That move hasn't panned out, but bringing in another Jags signal-caller might. Gardner Minshew II outplayed Foles in Jacksonville two years ago, finishing with 3,271 passing yards, 21 touchdowns and just six interceptions as a rookie.

Minshew was serviceable early in 2020 before suffering a significant thumb injury—and his passer rating of 95.9 was better than his 91.2 rookie rating. However, Jacksonville is likely to move on from Minshew because they have the top pick in the draft.

Presumably, they will use that selection on Clemson's Trevor Lawrence.

Minshew can likely be viewed as a high-end game-manager, which has pretty much been Trubisky's ceiling over the past few seasons. Perhaps more importantly, his 2021 cap hit of $897,271 makes Minshew arguably the cheapest experienced starter Chicago could consider.

For a team hurting for cap space, that could be the deciding factor.

Michael Gallup

Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

Regardless of who is under center for the Bears in 2021, they are going to need receiving help if Robinson gets away in free agency. Trading for a receiver like Dallas Cowboys wideout Michael Gallup could help fix the issue.

Gallup produced 1,107 receiving yards just two years ago and had 843 yards this past season with quarterback Dak Prescott sidelined for much of it. He's a quality receiver, but he may not be long for the Cowboys.

Gallup is in the final year of his contract, and re-signing him could be tricky for Dallas if it manages to lock up Prescott for the long term. The Cowboys also used a 2020 first-round draft pick on wideout CeeDee Lamb, so they may view Gallup as relatively expendable anyway—Amari Cooper is under contract through 2024.

While Gallup's cap hit of a little more than $1.1 million isn't hurting Dallas, the Cowboys could save nearly $1 million by moving him. That isn't much, but with more than $17 million in projected cap space, the team needs every free dollar it can get to re-sign or re-tag Prescott this offseason.

For Chicago, Gallup's low cap number makes him an attractive option, even if extending him past 2021 could prove problematic.

Cap and contract information via Spotrac.