Last week, we talked about all the things the inferior teams in the North would need to do to get under the salary cap for 2026. And most of them happened! The three bad teams in the North have generally made themselves more inferior over the past week. I'm writing this on Monday night this time, so there may be a little news since I wrote this, but I'm sure we'll have the main things. 

Bears

The Bears had a lot of departures, and it started with Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman retiring. This earned the ire of a lot of Bears fans on Twitter despite their complete ignorance of why he decided to retire. The team then traded DJ Moore to the Bills and cut Tremaine Edmunds. 

The team's first acquisition was noted bad center Garrett Bradbury, famously Kenny Clark's son, whom they traded for from the Patriots, where he was going to be benched this season. He will definitely be worse than Drew Dalman was last year, so don't be shocked if this is a CYA move - the Bears intend to draft Dalman's replacement and acquired Bradbury in case the board doesn't fall their way. 

On defense, the Bears made three day one acquisitions: linebacker Devin Bush, safety Coby Bryant, and nose tackle Neville Gallimore. 

Bush is probably the biggest name of the three (OK, the biggest name when you're only talking about football players). Bush could make two positions better for the Bears: TJ Edwards, who has become too slow to play Will, can move to the middle and use his size and mental ability, while Bush, who is a faster player, can play at the Will. I don't think Bush is significantly better or worse than Tremaine Edmunds, but he's cheaper, and Dennis Allen will know how to use him. 

Coby Bryant was a middle-of-the-road safety for the Seahawks last year, and Neville Gallimore was the 77th-ranked DT. Both of these are box-checking moves. 

Lions

The Lions have lost a lot. They traded David Montgomery. Alex Anzalone, Roy Lopez, and Amik Robertson signed with new teams. Taylor Decker and Graham Glasgow were released. Dan Skipper retired. That's a lot of meh players! 

They've made two acquisitions that could move the needle; they signed Cade Mays at center and got Juice Scruggs in the David Montgomery trade. Scruggs is JAG and is probably a depth piece. Cade Mays was paid, 3 years $24mm, to be the starter at center for the next few years. 

Mays was a target for many Packers fans, but I'm happy that we ended up with Sean Rhyan, even at $3mm more per year. Mays is one year removed from being on a practice squad and started 12 games for the Panthers last year. The Panthers had enough space to sign Mays, or at least plenty of levers to create space, and chose to let him leave. I would say it will be fun to watch Rhyan and Mays over the next few years, but I'm sure it will be depressing to see Mays outperform because of the coaching gap. 

Vikings

The Vikings have net losses as well. Some of these were known last week. Aaron Jones, Javon Hargrave, and Jonathan Allen to be released. Jalen Nailor signing with Raiders. CJ Ham and Harrison Smith are retiring. Jonathan Greenard is on the trade block.   

So far, the only addition is corner back James Pierre to a two-year deal, though former Packer Eric Wilson did earn a three-year $22.5mm extension, which seems insane. 

Pierre is an interesting signing. He was the second-highest graded corner by PFF last year, but had the 96th most snaps by a corner. He's either a depth piece for the Vikings, who already have a few expensive corners, or a small bet on a projection. Not a terrible move for a cap-strapped team. 

The elephant in the room (or should I say mouse in the room?)  is Kyler Murray. The former Pro Bowl QB was released by the Cardinals and could potentially sign with a team for the league minimum thanks to the guaranteed money that he got from Arizona this season. This is sort of a best-case scenario for the Vikings. Sign Murray, and he can carry the team until the new Call of Duty comes out and at that point, put JJ McCarthy in. He'll either prove himself or you will know the tear it all down.