playing like a second round pick<\/a>.<\/p>\nDayo Odeyingbo \u2013 Signed through 2027 \u2013 Dayo played in eight games before tearing his Achilles, and in those games, he had 21 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 4 QB hits, and a pass defended. I\u2019ve seen plenty suggest an injury settlement, but if you\u2019re Dayo, why would you agree to anything like that? He\u2019s set to make over $20 million this year.<\/p>\n
Dominique Robinson \u2013 Free agent \u2013 Dom Rob found a role in Dennis Allen\u2019s defense, and he was a special teams contributor, but the Bears need to get better depth at this position.<\/p>\n
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Joe Tryon-Shoyinka \u2013 Free agent \u2013 The Bears sent a sixth-round pick to the Browns for Tryon-Shoyinka and a seventh-round pick, and in his eight games in Chicago, he had 13 tackles, a tackle for loss, and a QB hit.<\/p>\n
Daniel Hardy \u2013 Restricted free agent \u2013\u00a0Hardy is still listed as a defensive end, but he can also play some linebacker, he lined up a couple of plays at fullback, and he\u2019s a core special teamer. His 355 snaps in the third phase led the team, as did his 19 special teams tackles. I can see Hardy back, but not on an RFA tender.<\/p>\n
Jamree Kromah \u2013 Signed through 2026 \u2013\u00a0He was a 2024 UDFA of the Bears who made their practice squad, but was signed away by the Patriots for a few weeks, was waived, then re-signed to Chicago\u2019s practice squad, where he\u2019s been since.<\/p>\n
The Bears signed Kromah and the next two defensive ends to reserve\/futures contracts earlier this year.<\/p>\n
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Jonathan Garvin\u00a0\u2013 Signed through 2026 \u2013 Garvin was on Chicago\u2019s practice squad a few months last year, and he has been bouncing around the NFL since 2020, with 38 games played.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah Martin \u2013 Signed through 2026 \u2013\u00a0He spent a couple of months on the Bears practice squad last season, and Chicago is his eighth pro football stop since 2023. He has yet to play in a regular season game.<\/p>\n
2026 OUTLOOK \u2013\u00a0Just about every mock draft has the Bears taking a defensive lineman at 25 in the first round, and this is a good class to have needs in the trenches. They should come away from the first two days (right now they have picks 25, 57, and 89) with at least one defensive end and one defensive tackle.<\/p>\n
At 25 in the first round, that could be Clenson\u2019s T.J. Parker, who had 41.5 tackles for loss and 21.5 sacks in 39 games over three seasons.<\/p>\n
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Miami\u2019s Akheem Mesidor is an older prospect (25), but he\u2019s polished and would be an immediate contributor.<\/p>\n
The big free agent this year is Trey Hendrickson, who is 31 and coming off an injury, but in 2023 and 2024, he racked up 35 sacks. Most projections are for about $100 million over three years, which would be challenging for the Bears to fit under the cap, but doable.<\/p>\n
The other big name is the Raiders\u2019 Maxx Crosby, who is still under contract but has been the subject of trade rumors for months. A first-round pick, a player, and a day two pick could be enough for the Bears to get it done. He\u2019d probably require an immediate contract extension, but again, the Bears have moves to make to create the cap space.<\/p>\n
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If he doesn\u2019t retire, Khalil Mack would be fun back in Chicago at the right price, but he can\u2019t be the only move they make.<\/p>\n
New England\u2019s K\u2019Lavon Chaisson will be 27 this summer, and he\u2019s coming off a career-best 7.5 sacks.<\/p>\n
What do you think the Bears will do at defensive end this season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can never have enough pass rushers, so when you don\u2019t have enough, it really stands out. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[52319,7240,374,692,391,2493,21168,8820,22101,27164,7,345,42017,24057,12712,39550,8035,3278,6563,216,8554,1167,6,208,525,3394,1503],"class_list":["post-770810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-bears","tag-akheem-mesidor","tag-austin-booker","tag-bears","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-chicagobears","tag-daniel-hardy","tag-dayo","tag-defensive-ends","tag-dominique-robinson","tag-football","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-jamree-kromah","tag-jeremiah-martin","tag-joe-tryon-shoyinka","tag-jonathan-garvin","tag-klavon-chaisson","tag-khalil-mack","tag-maxx-crosby","tag-miami","tag-montez-sweat","tag-new-england","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-raiders","tag-the-bears","tag-trey-hendrickson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116119331364030210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}