Here are a few to watch for as the NFL Combine festivities begin in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
The NFL's legal tampering period starts March 11, which marks when teams can formally begin negotiating contracts with free agents. In reality, they're just picking up conversations from Indianapolis, where executives and players' representatives discuss contract numbers and iron out some details.
The Bears are slated with just $11.6 million in cap room, according to Spotrac. That means their offseason is expected to be more quiet than in years past, but there will be no complaints from general manager Ryan Pace after paying star edge rusher Khalil Mack a record contract last September and watching as he elevated the Bears defense.
What the Bears will be focused on is locking up their own impending free agents, notably nickel cornerback Bryce Callahan. The Ravens set the market on a nickel cornerback by signing Tavon Young to a three-year, $25.8-million extension last week.
Callahan's market value is projected by Spotrac at four years and more than $28 million. Is that too high of a price for the Bears? If so, would that mean a new deal for safety Adrian Amos? All that should become more clear for Pace this week.
Last year at the combine, Pace spoke of the Bears' potential plans to sign nose tackle Eddie Goldman and Amos to extensions ahead of a contract season. Goldman was locked into a new deal through 2022. Amos didn't get an extension, setting him on a path for free agency this March.
Pro Bowl center Cody Whitehair will be among the Bears in play for an extension in the coming months. The tricky part is there may not be much cap room available after the dust settles in free agency. The Bears could ask a team staple like guard Kyle Long or defensive lineman Akiem Hicks to restructure his contract in order to open up present or future cap space to accommodate a Callahan, Amos or Whitehair.
The Bears don't own a first-round or second-round pick this April after sacrificing them in trades to acquire Mack and receiver Anthony Miller in 2018. With that in mind, Pace would love to have another mid-round success story like Hicks, whom the Saints drafted in the third round of the 2012 draft when Pace was a member of the New Orleans front office.
Pace has a strong track record of drafting in the middle rounds in his four-plus years in Chicago. The Bears have selected safety Eddie Jackson and running back Tarik Cohen in the fourth round and Amos and running back Jordan Howard in the fifth round. Jackson and Cohen have become All-Pros, while Amos and Howard have been dependable starters.
Pace has practiced what he preaches in selecting the best player available, so one can expect the Bears will look for value in the middle rounds. Moves up or down the draft order are something the Bears have made commonplace as well.
The Bears made headlines in January when Pace and Nagy sat side by side at the season's post-mortem and didn't rule out the possibility of signing troubled Pro Bowl running back Kareem Hunt, who's expected to serve a lengthy suspension after assaulting a woman last February.
Instead, it was the Browns who signed Hunt in early February. The Bears explored the possibility of signing Hunt, but their pursuit didn't go beyond that, sources said.
So what will the Bears do with their running back situation for 2019?
Howard is entering a contract year and coming off a relatively disappointing first season in Nagy's offense, rushing 250 times for 935 yards (3.7 yards per carry). Cohen has two years left on his contract and was well-established as the dynamic weapon Nagy had hoped he would be, but the Bears want to utilize him wisely and not as a 20-carry feature back.
Howard, 24, could be a trade candidate for the Bears, who could regain draft assets and in turn seek a better fit for Nagy's offense. They could also retain Howard and commit to using him more efficiently before perhaps parting ways in free agency a year from now.
Either way, the Bears can explore a deep class of running backs that could include Ohio State's Mike Weber, Kentucky's Bennie Snell and Washington's Myles Gaskin as potential options on the second and third days of the draft.
So begins another offseason for the Bears that includes searching for a kicker, a frustrating pattern in Pace's tenure.
The Bears will release Parkey at the start of the league new year, a source confirmed, after he struggled mightily in 2018. The team will pay out the remaining $3.5 million guaranteed owed to Parkey from the four-year, $15-million contract he signed last March.
Where the solution is found remains unclear. Some hope for the Bears to sign Robbie Gould, the franchise's all-time leading scorer who was released in September 2016. Gould has hit 82 of 85 field goals since then, but he could land back with the 49ers, as they have ample cap room and could apply the franchise tag.
Matt Bryant, 43, is available after the Falcons released him in early February. But signing the NFL's third-oldest active player wouldn't necessarily bring stability to the kicking problem. The Bears did sign Redford Jones to a reserve/future contract in January after he won an apparent competition with one-time Pro Bowl kickers Blair Walsh and Nick Folk.
The Bears could find their next kicker in the draft, with LSU's Cole Tracy considered the top player available at his position. Utah's Matt Gay and Oklahoma's Austin Seibert are the other two kickers invited to the combine.