Bills to Retain RFA OL Ryan Bates by Matching Bears Offer Sheet

Bills to retain Ryan Bates by matching Bears offer originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

The Bears will miss out on another potential free agent signing. Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane told reporters on Monday that he plans to match the offer sheet that restricted free agent offensive lineman Ryan Bates signed with the Bears last week.

A restricted free agent is any player who has three accrued years of NFL experience, with an expired contract. RFAs are free to negotiate with any team, but their previous team can tender them contracts at various levels. The highest-paying tenders can give first-round draft pick compensation to the RFAs previous team, if they decide not to match an offer sheet the RFA has signed with another team. In Bates’ case, the Bills reportedly gave him a “right of first refusal” tender, meaning the Bills had five days to match the Bears’ offer sheet to retain him. According to multiple reports, that offer sheet was for a four-year deal.

Bates initially joined the league as an undrafted free agent with the Eagles in 2019, but a few months after signing with Philadelphia he was traded to Buffalo. He appeared in eight games as a rookie, but played in all 16 games for the Bills in 2020, and all 17 in 2021. Bates made his first career start in Week 4 as an extra eligible tackle, but then started at right guard in Week 16, before finishing as the team’s starting left guard from Week 17 through the postseason.

This isn’t the first free agent near miss for Ryan Poles either. The Bears GM was set to sign defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi to the largest contract of his short career, but Ogunjobi failed his physical and the deal fell through.

Regardless of missing out on Bates, Poles has shown he’s not done adding to the Bears OL unit. The team has already signed Lucas Patrick and Dakota Dozier, and opted to let James Daniels leave in free agency. Last week, Patrick revealed he believes the Bears want him to play center, not guard, so the team still needs to find Daniels’ replacement at right guard. That replacement could be on the Bears already, or could come in the form of another addition. It’s still unclear whether Poles wants to move forward with Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom at the tackle positions, too.

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