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Courtney CroninMar 15, 2026, 06:00 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever and GameNight on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The flurry of activity inside Halas Hall in the days leading up to free agency<\/a> made the Chicago Bears<\/a> one of the most active teams in the NFL.<\/p>\n In a span of four days, the Bears lost center Drew Dalman to a surprising retirement<\/a>, replaced him by sending a 2027 fifth-round pick<\/a> to the New England Patriots<\/a> for Garrett Bradbury<\/a>, traded DJ Moore<\/a> to the Buffalo Bills<\/a>, and released Tremaine Edmunds<\/a>. In the process, Chicago armed itself with $44 million in salary cap space to use as the new league year began Wednesday.<\/p>\n But as the first wave of free agency died down, the Bears weren’t among the NFL’s biggest spenders and have created more questions about the state of their roster with the number of starters — especially on defense — who signed with other teams.<\/p>\n “We want to sustain success,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said. “We talk about that a lot. In order to do that, we have to be very calculated with the moves we make.”<\/p>\n Here’s a look at the biggest questions facing Chicago as the dust settles from free agency and what’s next.<\/p>\n Will the Bears draft an edge rusher with the No. 25 pick?<\/p>\n On Thursday, Poles confirmed the Bears “were involved” in conversations with the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> about a trade for five-time Pro Bowler Maxx Crosby<\/a>. Ultimately, the asking price of two first-round picks (which the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> gave up before calling off their trade with the Raiders) was out of Chicago’s price range. So was paying a premium at a position that saw Jaelan Phillips<\/a> (four years, $120 million), Trey Hendrickson<\/a> (four years, $112 million) and Odafe Oweh<\/a> (four years, $100 million) ink expensive free agent deals.<\/p>\n Poles said the Bears wanting to hold onto their draft capital while also being conscious of their salary cap precluded them from spending big at edge rusher, but the position remains Chicago’s biggest need. The Bears were tied for the fifth-fewest sacks with 35 and ranked 31st in pass rush win rate. Upgrading the defensive end spot opposite Montez Sweat<\/a> needs to happen, and the clearest path toward checking that box is via the draft.<\/p>\n However, despite a loaded crop of edge rusher talent, it might be difficult for the Bears to land a top defensive end late in the first round. ESPN draft analysts Mel Kiper Jr. and Jordan Reid have Chicago drafting a defensive tackle at No. 25 — Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald<\/a> and Clemson’s Peter Woods<\/a>, respectively, in their latest mock drafts — with several defensive ends off the board by the time Chicago is on the clock late on Day 1.<\/p>\n In addition to Edmunds, who led the Bears in tackles (112) in 2025 despite missing four games with a groin injury, Chicago let three members of its starting secondary walk in free agency: safeties C.J. Gardner-Johnson<\/a>, Kevin Byard III<\/a> and Jaquan Brisker<\/a>, plus cornerback Nahshon Wright<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Bears upgraded one spot of the secondary with safety Coby Bryant<\/a>, who signed a three-year, $40 million contract<\/a>. And the speed they added in the middle of the defense with linebacker Devin Bush<\/a> was a win for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.<\/p>\n “That’s something I noticed, we all noticed, I think especially in the postseason, and really down the last part of the fall,” Poles said. “In order to play the style we want to play, we need to be able to close on the football a lot faster than we have been doing.”<\/p>\n Chicago added defensive tackles Neville Gallimore<\/a> and Kentavius Street<\/a>, which will allow Allen to bolster the interior pass-rush rotation, but the holes created by the departures of four starters create several questions.<\/p>\n Do the Bears go back to Tyrique Stevenson<\/a> as a starter at cornerback, even after he was benched in favor of Wright for the regular-season finale? With four picks in the top 89 of the draft order, should Chicago look to draft a cornerback on Day 1 or 2? Who will play safety opposite Bryant, and in what round of the draft can the Bears find a plug-and-play starter? These questions are ones that foreshadow a heavy emphasis on defense in April.<\/p>\n What does left tackle look like?<\/p>\n The Bears made it clear to Jedrick Wills Jr<\/a>. that he is being brought in to compete at left tackle, along with Braxton Jones<\/a>, who re-signed with Chicago on a one-year, $10 million deal.<\/p>\n What to know for NFL free agency \u2022 Tracking latest moves<\/a> | Grading deals<\/a> Wills sat out the 2025 season while recovering from a complex knee injury. The 2020 first-rounder injured an MCL in Week 9 of the 2023 season and came back to start four games for the Browns in 2024 before getting shut down to fully heal so he could continue his NFL career in 2026.<\/p>\n “I had minimal damage to my ligaments,” Wills said. “It was more of an alignment issue from where I got fell on.<\/p>\n “It wasn’t my knee; they had to go into my femur and do what was called an osteotomy to kind of correct my alignment. So my knee is healthy. It took a little bit longer than just the regular injury, but it’s doing better now.”<\/p>\n Jones, who was drafted by the Bears in the fifth round in 2022 and has 44 starts in four seasons, enters this offseason healthy. With their injuries behind them, Wills and Jones will headline a competition that will once again be the focal point of training camp, with Theo Benedet<\/a> a third option in the mix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtney CroninMar 15, 2026, 06:00 AM ET CloseCourtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-813536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116232630500920023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813536","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=813536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kevin Byard III (31) and safety Jaquan Brisker (9) are no longer with the Bears. Will that make Tyrique Stevenson (29) a starter?\u00a0Kyle Terada-Imagn ImagesHow do the Bears rectify the players lost on defense?<\/p>\n
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