The One Contract Holding Back the Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears are finally coming around to the notion that quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is the player holding them back from reaching their goals. The franchise moved one step closer to divorcing itself from the former No. 2 overall pick by declining the fifth-year option on his rookie contract for the 2021 season.

If Chicago exercised the option, it would have had to pay Trubisky $24.8 million. Instead, he will become an unrestricted free agent next March.

Despite doing so, there's still no other contract on the Bears' payroll that sticks out quit like the 25-year-old gunslinger's.

Shortly after being drafted in 2017, Trubisky signed a four-year, $29 million contract with Chicago. At the time, the Bears believed that the former UNC star would take them to new heights. Fast forward to 2019, and the team coughed up a fourth-round pick to acquire Nick Foles from the Jacksonville Jaguars because it was so desperate to have legitimate insurance behind the 2018 Pro Bowler.

Trubisky will only pocket $825,000 in base salary for the 2020 season, but his deal comes with a $9.237 million cap hit. That's outstandingly woeful for a player that has a solid chance of starting the year as Chicago's backup. To put that figure into perspective, it's a greater hit than the deals of teammates Eddie Jackson, Roquan Smith, Robert Quinn, and Colby Whitehair, all of whom are locked in as starters next season.

We hate to pick on the guy, but Trubisky's play last year and salary for 2020 are playing a significant role in holding the Bears back.