Bears to decline Josh Sitton’s option, leaving Pro Bowl guard a free agent

The Bears are letting one of their few Pro Bowl players walk.

Sources confirmed that the team informed guard Josh Sitton on Tuesday that they would not pick up his $8 million 2018 option, ending his two-year stint with the Bears.

In 2016, Sitton, considered one of the game’s great pass-blocking guards, earned his fourth Pro Bowl honor. The Bears signed him on the eve of that season after he was unexpectedly cut by the Packers after eight years. The Bears inked him to a three-year, $21 million deal.

Sitton, who turns 32 in June, started 25 games in two seasons with the Bears, who will now try to make their offensive line younger. Quenton Nelson, Notre Dame’s star lineman, has been generating top-10 draft buzz, but the Bears figure to look hard at free agents, too.

With the NFL Scouting Combine starting next week and free agency two weeks later, the Bears have begun to shape their roster for the 2018 season. Earlier Tuesday, the Bears informed inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman that they were releasing him.