Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles arrived in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine this week in a different position compared to years past.

Poles mostly came to the combine looking to bring in talent in order to lay down a foundation to his roster in the years since he took over in 2022. But a few combines and a playoff run later, Poles faces different roster challenges this time around.

[ What Chicago Bears’ Ryan Poles, Ben Johnson said Tuesday at the NFL Combine ]

Chicago will need to make some tough roster decisions in the coming weeks as it tries to manage its salary cap situation. The Bears rank in the bottom 10 in cap space and will need to decide what to do with some veteran players’ contracts as they try not to create space to make moves, but to get under the cap.

“There’s a lot more calls coming in, interest in these guys that we have to kind of sequence that out to see how it impacts our team,” Poles said in Indianapolis. “I talked a little bit about cost of replacement, what does that look like. So really this week is kind of, we know what we need to do, but any new, unique opportunities that might pop up are usually going to pop up here, and then we’ll get back and kind of sort it all out and make decisions.”

One of those major decisions will be what to do with veteran wide receiver DJ Moore’s contract.

Moore will enter the first year of his extension that he signed in 2024 with the biggest cap hit on the Bears roster. According to Over the Cap, Moore is set to have a $28.5 million cap hit.

The hit comes after Moore took a lesser role in head coach Ben Johnson’s offense to many of their other playmakers. Moore finished second on the team with 682 receiving yards, but only finished ahead of Rome Odunze, who played in 12 games, by 21 yards, and rookie Luther Burden III by 30 yards. Rookie tight end Colston Loveland led the team with 713 receiving yards.

Some of Moore’s 2025 numbers were all career lows. Moore beat out his previous career-low in receiving yards by 106 to go along with a low in receptions (50). He had the second-fewest targets (85).

“There’s one football, and there’s a lot more talented targets, and how that all works out, where they are,” Poles said of Moore’s season. “I can’t tell you, like where everybody is in different progressions. So I know at some points it was slow, some moments, like towards the end of the season was amazing.”

But Moore came through for the Bears at critical points last year.

Moore played in all of the Bears’ games during the regular season and playoffs. He played through numerous injuries throughout the year, while Odunze and Burden dealt with injuries at times.

Moore also came through with clutch catches down the stretch and in the playoffs. He caught the game-winning overtime touchdown against the Green Bay Packers in Week 16 and added two more in his first trip to the playoffs.

“He was a guy we knew we could count on,” Johnson said. “If guys go down, he can step in. There really wasn’t anything we shied away from in terms of the route tree that he could or could not do. I feel like the versatility is something that screams at you, the intelligence screams at you, and as Ryan alluded to in our last press conference, just the toughness, the durability. When you talk about a 17-plus game season, that’s where a player like that is really, really valuable.”

Chicago will need to decide how valuable that is in the coming weeks. Even if the Bears decide to move Moore, it’s complicated how they would do it.

Moore will have a dead cap hit of about $35.5 million and lose about $7 million if they cut him before June 1, according to Over the Cap. That dead cap drops to roughly $27.5 with a post-June 1 cut.

Trading Moore to a team that can take on his contract would create more cap space than just releasing him. The Bears would save $16.5 million if they traded Moore before June 1 or $24.5 million if they traded him after. Moore would be sure to have a market if the Bears decided to trade him.

Poles made it clear he’s weighing all his options. When asked about potential cut targets such as tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift, Poles said he’d listen to offers but expected both players to return.

He didn’t offer the same response when asked about Moore’s return.

“I have to have conversations to see what, like I said, the best combination of players we can bring in,” Poles said. “We want him here. We think highly of him. He’s a great teammate. He has been productive pretty consistently over the last however many years he’s been here. So I have nothing but great things to say about him. But this is the time now where we have to look at all the different scenarios to see what can allow us to put the best team out there.”

A decision could come sooner rather than later.

Teams will be allowed to start negotiating with unrestricted free agents on March 9 and sign them at the start of the new league year on March 11. The Bears will need to shed about $4 million in cap space to get under the cap and even more to make any moves in free agency.

“He was a guy we knew we could count on. If guys go down, he can step in. There really wasn’t anything we shied away from in terms of the route tree that he could or could not do.”

—  Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears head coach

It won’t be an easy decision for Poles to make. Moore was involved in the biggest move Poles has made as general manager when he was part of the trade for the 2023 No. 1 overall pick with the Carolina Panthers that ultimately netted the Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.

Poles will need to weigh everything as he figures out what he wants to do next.

“There are relationships there,” Poles said. “There’s a lot there that makes it really, really difficult. He’s a guy we want here. But we have to look at all the different scenarios.”