The point is that once it became clear Washington couldn’t extend him, there was a 100% chance he would get traded to someone, and an extremely high likelihood that whoever traded for him would extend him. So if not the Bears, it would have been somebody else.
Except that he literally was a couple of months away from making it to free agency. Clearly, Washington wasn’t going to extend him.
The point is that once it became clear Washington couldn’t extend him, there was a 100% chance he would get traded to someone, and an extremely high likelihood that whoever traded for him would extend him. So if not the Bears, it would have been somebody else.