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As first reported by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the Chicago Bears are re-signing defensive lineman Mario Edwards Jr., and ESPN’s Adam Schefter has confirmed that it’ll be a three-year contract for the 27-year old Edwards.
The contract details are now available on Over The Cap, and Edwards’ 2021 cap hit will only be about $1.7 million. The full deal is a three-year contract for $11.66 million, with $5.5 million guaranteed, and a $3.62 million signing bonus. There are two void years added in 2024 and 2025 to help spread out the signing bonus, and his cap hit will be around $4.2 million in 2022 and 2023.
The former 2015 second-round draft pick of the Raiders just put up a career high 4 sacks in a reserve role in his first season in Chicago. Last year in 15 games he played 256 defensive snaps (24%) and another 77 (17%) on special teams. Besides the career best sack number, he picked up 17 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 7 QB hits, and 1 pass defended.
He’ll start the 2021 season on the suspended list for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, but he’ll be back for week three.
Edwards was one of five unrestricted free agents the Bears had at d-line along with Brent Urban, John Jenkins, Daniel McCullers, and Roy Robertson-Harris, but Robertson-Harris is signing with the Jaguars.
It’s also expected that nose tackle Eddie Goldman, who opted out of the 2020 season due to the pandemic, is going to return in 2021.
Other Bear defensive lineman currently under contract are Akiem Hicks, Bilal Nichols, and 2020 practice squadder LaCale London.
With free agency officially opening up on Wednesday, and the early negotiation period starting tomorrow (both at 3:00 p.m. CT), we should expect more re-signings and roster moves from the Bears in the coming days.