Tremaine Edmunds And The Bucs
February 17th, 2026
Could Bears really cut him?
We don’t know if Bucs icon Lavonte David will return for a 15th season. Even if he does, the Bucs need to be proactive in bringing in a quality off-the-ball linebacker.
(Sorry, SirVocea Dennis is not a starting NFL linebacker.)
As seen yesterday with the Dolphins shaving contracts from their roster, it’s cap season where teams are trying to clear cap space to either go get a free agent or two or to get under the salary cap.
The Bears are well over their cap, which leads Matt Okada of NFL.com to think Chicago may turn loose middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, even though he is a quality player.
Edmunds remained a solid and consistent linebacker in his eighth NFL season (and third with the Bears), extending his unbroken streak of seasons with 100+ tackles along with four interceptions and a fumble recovery. If he was making solid starter money — say $10 million a year — there’d be little to no reason to move on (except that Chicago is $5.3 million over the cap right now). Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Edmunds’ AVV of $18 million is third-highest at his position, and his cap hit of $17.4 million is fourth-highest. Most importantly, the Bears can save a monster $15 million against the cap by letting him go, with just $2.4 million in dead money.
Last summer in his annual poll of NFL suits, coaches and scouts, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN had Edmunds at the sixth-best off-the-ball linebacker, right ahead of David, who was No. 7.
Edmunds will enter his ninth NFL season and the Virginia Tech product has never not had 100 tackles in a season.
If somehow the Bears deem Edmunds expendable, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht needs to be all over Edmunds to come to Tampa Bay.
Edmunds has only known frigid weather, having played for the Bills and Bears in his career. Time for him to enjoy some decent weather for a change.
