No Offseason: Get Backs

Part two of the defense because the line play and potential additions will certainly be the pivot point of the offseason. It’s also good to start with the line because in the football sense there is just less to parse when it comes to the jobs of defensive lineman. Get to the passer, set the edge, clog the middle and play gaps. When it gets to the back seven there is a lot more variance on what a specific defensive scheme is looking for. That makes it harder to target exactly what the assessment is for both in-house players and potential replacements. So I’ll do my best but ultimately, everything we do is to stave off the realization that each second brings us closer to death and none this actually matters at all. 

The Needs:  

Linebacker 

I stand by every criticism of Ryan Poles I have either written or said. I think he is bad and hasn’t been able to do very much good when the solution isn’t extremely obvious. I’m not going to relitigate that as much as I would like to because even though in my opinion it was 97% Ben Johnson and another 2% dumb luck, Poles’ roster did win 11 games last year and come within a couple completed passes of the NFC Championship Game. That’s all to say that the flaws in roster construction show up in the linebacking core. Tremaine Edmunds was brought with a big free agent contract because they didn’t want to pay Roquan Smith because they didn’t think linebackers were worth paying big money... but they gave big money to Tremaine Edmunds. Wait. I said I wouldn’t do this. Anyway, Edmunds will either be cut or traded. Maybe even before this publishes. They gave TJ Edwards an extension before last season, it bumped his cap hit for the 2026 up to 10 million from five in 2025 and kept him from hitting free agency. Not egregious but his play had the look of a linebacker hitting his thirties and the problem is now compounded by his injury that forced him out for the rest of the season. The Bears took Ruben Hyppolite in the 4^th round despite most teams (and me) having an UDFA grade on him. He was either injured or inactive most of the season. Deep sigh. It probably speaks to the weakness of this unit that there was legitimate debate when Edwards and Edmunds were out, if the linebacker play was actually better with off-the-couch free agent D’Marco Jackson and since released Amen Ogbongbemiga. There will be at least one addition here, maybe two depending on the health outlook of Edwards and the career outlook of Hyppolite. Noah Sewell is also still on the roster but also looms as a cut candidate. 

In-House Options + PFF Rank /88 

TJ Edwards – 25 

Tremaine Edmunds – 34 

Noah Sewell – 81 

Ruben Hyppolite – NA 

Available Free Agents + PFF Rank /88 

Devin Lloyd – 3 

Devin Bush – 4 

Demario Davis – 6 

Bobby Wagner – 7 

Justin Strnad – 16 

Leo Chenal – 18 

Alex Singleton – 29 

Kaden Eliss – 31 

Alex Anzalone – 32 

Nakobe Dean – 42 

Quay Walker – 74 

Quincy Williams – 76 

Willie Gay – NA 

The swap of Edmunds for Anzalone plus some cash seems pretty easy here. Anzalone was drafted by Dennis Allen in New Orleans and then was in Detroit with Ben Johnson. He also figures to cost only a piece of the 15 million they’ll save by getting rid of Edmunds. Aside from that, it’s hard to know what they want stylistically. They certainly want to get faster, but their internal metrics know more about that than me. It’s also possible that they bring back Jackson who proved to be a very useful player in spot duty. There has been some clamoring for Devin Lloyd but with linebacker being devalued across the league and lots of work to do this offseason, I think that would be a very big leap to pay him big money. 

Safety

I’m not going to do the research because I have to make dinner soon, but I would be curious how often a team goes into an offseason having to replace an entire position group. The Bears do not return any safeties, but both departing starters still have their names in the mix. Jaquan Brisker probably played his best game of his Bears career in what will likely be his last in the final game against the Rams. Brisker is polarizing because he definitely has his moments. He plays very hard and seems to be a great team guy. But he also doesn’t make enough plays and can have his lack of discipline weaponized against him. If you don’t believe me, you can listen to the Bears current head coach talk about attacking his “bad eyes” when he was the Lions OC. With draft mate Kyler Gordon being extended last offseason, I’m struck by a version of the line from The Social Network when Zuckerberg is talking to the twins who are suing him, “if you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook.” If the Bears wanted to extend Jaquan Brisker, they would have extended Jaquan Brisker. He gone. Kevin Byard is a more likely return candidate. He had an All-Pro season and was widely considered the leader of the defense if not the entire team. They could bring him back on a team friendly deal but the fact that it hasn’t happened yet makes me think it’s not going to. If the Bears truly are turning into an actual football organization with competence, the Patriots law of: “better one year too early, than one year too late” seems to apply here. They’ll also need to replace special teams depth and celebrity fan cache with Mr. Simone Biles likely leaving. 

In-House Options + PFF Rank 

None :0 

Available Free Agents + PFF Rank  /98 

Bryan Cook – 4 

Jaylinn Hawkins – 5 

Kevin Byard – 15 

Kamren Curl – 16 

Alohi Gilman – 24 

Chuck Clark – 25 

Tony Jefferson – 25 

Jalen Thompson – 35 

Nick Scott – 37 

Jordan Poyer – 39 

Coby Bryant – 45 

Dane Belton – 58 

Andre Cisco – 62 

Nick Cross – 69 

Andrew Wingard – 77 

Kyle Dugger – 82 

CJ Gardner-Johnson – 86 

Donavan Wilson – 88 

Reed Blankenship – 92 

Jabrill Peppers – NA 

This position is also hard to forecast for a couple of reasons. Different teams have different definitions of the safety position and what they want them to do and what they can do. Are they a field safety responsible for playing center field like Byard? Are they a box safety meant to serve as another run defender like Brisker? Are they a hybrid linebacker who does a lot of blitzing like the Seahawks use Nick Emmanwori? Are they a bit of everything like Kyle Hamilton? Are they a slot corner like CJ Gardner-Johnson? It’s hard to know, so I’ll stick with the likely format this takes rather than specific names. They will sign a safety early in free agency that can anchor the group. I don’t think it will be Kevin Byard. Then they’ll draft one. Then they’ll wait out the market and add another one after the draft. Safety is usually the first position that gets hit by cap casualties, so they’ll be a veteran with some kind of cache available. Maybe this is Kevin Byard. Then they’ll add a couple more special teams/camp bodies closer to minicamp. 

Odds and Ends 

I left cornerback off for now. There hasn’t been any noise on Jaylon Johnson either towards an extension or a move so until there is it would just be reckless speculation. It’s likely that Nahshon Wright exits which leaves a hole but whether or not that is filled in-house remains to be seen. Tyrique Stevenson found his way on the bench for most of the second half of the year and I would be pretty surprised if he is on the team next year. There is also Terrell Smith who is coming off his 83,291,293^rd injury of his football career so betting on him for anything seems unwise and then there is Zah Frazier who missed all of his rookie season but fits the exact type of archetype they found and molded with Wright.