With the Chicago Bears now officially eliminated from playoff contention, the focus now turns toward the 2025 season and looking into the missing pieces to help get some improvement out of this team.
The Bears have plenty of assets to make some splashes this offseason, either on the open market or by adding top prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Chicago's front office could even get aggressive and look to trade for a high impact player given the number of top picks at the team's disposal. And one name in particular might be on the trading block soon.
Dallas Cowboys' star defender Micah Parsons has an uncertain future ahead of him once the 2024 season comes to a close and things keep getting more interesting.
Parsons has one more year remaining on his rookie contract and still hasn't received confirmation that the team that drafted him will look to give him a second contract, something Parsons himself acknowledged after the Cowboys' Week 15 win.
"I understand how that business side goes. There are no hard feelings in this business, whether I'm here or anywhere else," Parsons said after Sunday's game via Jon Machota. "Obviously I've stated that I want to be [with Dallas]. But at the end of the day, I understand the business side."
His comments came after he was asked what his thoughts were on the NFL Media report that dropped Sunday morning stating the Cowboys haven't ruled out trading Parsons. After paying both quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb, it's easy to see why the team would be skeptical about paying another top level contract.
"I think that's a balancing act that you always got to look at," Cowboys executive Stephen Jones said via NFL.com. "Especially when your good, good players get hurt and are not on the field. It totally magnifies the issue if you lose guys like Dak, and Diggs misses games, Zack Martin misses games and it's going to magnify something like that. You're going to say 'God, are we smart having this much money tied in to the top five to 10 players?' "
Obviously, the Cowboys would love to find a way to keep Parsons along with the rest of the core players locked into the roster. It's also clear Parsons wants to stay exactly where he is in Dallas but still isn't ruling anything out either.
"I've put in a lot of work, I've played hard too, so obviously if sides can't agree to those type of things, it happens like that," Parsons added. "But I'm just happy to be here. I'm just gonna keep playing hard while I'm here. If I'm here for the next 5-6 years, I'm gonna keep playing hard then too. Ain't nothing really gonna make a difference, Micah is gonna play hard."
If the Cowboys decide that paying Parsons will put the team into a tough financial spot based on the other top contracts on the roster, the Bears would be wise to make the call to see what it'd take to snatch Parsons away.
Right now, the Bears have nearly $80 million in cap space and could in theory work out some kind of second contract with Parsons and the needed picks to compensate the Cowboys in return.
Adding another dominant defensive lineman is one of the top needs on the roster and sometimes it's better to bank on players you know are good, and Parsons is one of the best all around defenders in the league.
Adding a player like that to the front alongside Montez Sweat and Gervon Dexter Sr. would give Chicago a fearsome unit on defense.
Then the team can utilize the rest of the remaining assets to build up the offensive line in front of Caleb Williams. But again, the ball is in the Cowboys' court to see what direction they want to go with Parsons.
