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The Bears are already near the top of the league in available cap space for 2018, with about $50 million to spend. And they’re likely to have a lot more space available when they get done cutting expensive veterans.

Mike Glennon has a team-high cap hit of $16 million for 2018, and it goes without saying the Bears will cut him. Signing Glennon last year was a huge mistake by G.M. Ryan Pace.

But a less-discussed mistake for Pace was signing wide receiver Markus Wheaton, ostensibly to be Glennon’s No. 1 receiver. Wheaton caught a grand total of three passes for the Bears last season and with a $5.75 million cap hit, he’s almost certain to be cut as well.

Pernell McPhee has played well at outside linebacker at times, but his cap hit is $8.1 million in 2018, and ESPN is reporting McPhee won’t be back unless he agrees to a pay cut. McPhee will probably test the market.

The Bears also have a couple veterans in the secondary, cornerback Marcus Cooper and safety Quintin Demps, who could get cut. Cooper’s cap hit is $5.5 million while Demps’ is just under $4 million. Both could be on the way out.

Pace will have a lot of cap space to play with heading in free agency. The question is whether he’ll make wiser use of it than he did last year, when Glennon and Wheaton were his big acquisitions.