{"id":853753,"date":"2026-04-04T18:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853753\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:50:20","slug":"nfl-executives-share-their-thoughts-on-the-bears-free-agency-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853753\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Executives Share Their Thoughts on the Bears’ Free Agency Moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bears<\/a> didn’t use free agency to sign splash names to upgrade the roster, but impact players were still added for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

General manager Ryan Poles was calculated in his acquisitions, finding young, talented playmakers alongside veterans to replenish a roster with holes throughout the team.<\/p>\n

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Of course, the Bears thought highly of their moves, but what did NFL executives make of Poles’ transactions to upgrade head coach Ben Johnson’s roster? The Athletic spoke with NFL executives about the NFC teams’ free agencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the top takeaways from what executives had to say about the Bears.<\/p>\n

Executives liked former Seattle Seahawks safety Coby Bryant joining the Bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood player \u2014 wish we could have gotten him,\u201d an exec told The Athletic about Bryant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeattle wanted to keep him,\u201d another exec told The Athletic.<\/p>\n

Bryant was a pivotal piece on a Seahawks team that finished No. 1 in scoring defense, and ranked first in DVOA<\/a> defense. Johnson described Bryant as a “trained killer”<\/a> who has that “it factor” at the NFL’s annual league meeting.<\/p>\n

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The 27-year-old safety signed a three-year, $40 million contract, signaling what the Bears’ organization believes he can add to Chicago’s defense for the next few seasons.<\/p>\n

Bryant became an option for the Bears in the first place because the team decided to let 2025 interception leader Kevin Byard III sign with the New England Patriots in free agency. Nahshon Wright also left and so did linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. Those three alone accounted for 20 of the Bears’ 23 interceptions.<\/p>\n

Here’s what one exec told The Athletic about those moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot bank on that stuff,\u201d an exec said of the turnovers. \u201cThey had to get better. They are banking on (corners) Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon being healthy. Coby Bryant is going to play in the post. Devin Bush is the athlete that they like. They will probably either (blitz) him or match him underneath. And then I\u2019d be shocked if they do not continue to build the defensive front.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That defensive front was also a topic of conversation among executive when talking about Chicago. The Bears signed three new interior defensive lineman with Neville Gallimore, Kentavius Street and James Lynch, which should help a Bears run defense that allowed 134.5 rushing yards per game (27th most) last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pass rush has been their biggest question on defense the last few years,\u201d an exec told The Athletic. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t really been the back end, where they\u2019ve given contracts to Jaylon Johnson and their nickel (Gordon), drafted Tyrique Stevenson. They need to improve the D-line, but they couldn\u2019t really do it because they are locked into guys with guaranteed money. They didn\u2019t really address their biggest defensive need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on this select handful of NFL executives that were involved in The Athletic’s story, the Bears had some mixed reactions about the moves. Bears fans might agree with the opinions from higher ups in the league, but the Bears can still address needs on this team in a few weeks during the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Some of those current questions could be answered, and the Bears will be in a better position as team if Poles can hit on the correct players in the the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bears didn’t use free agency to sign splash names to upgrade the roster, but impact players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,1035,692,391,2493,2873,11095,7,16149,11419,4861,4422,10378,4986,6,261,4394,7401,1471],"class_list":{"0":"post-853753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-ben-johnson","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-coby-bryant","14":"tag-devin-bush","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-jaylon-johnson","17":"tag-kentavius-street","18":"tag-kevin-byard","19":"tag-kyler-gordon","20":"tag-nahshon-wright","21":"tag-neville-gallimore","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-seattle-seahawks","24":"tag-the-athletic","25":"tag-tremaine-edmunds","26":"tag-tyrique-stevenson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116347944034366311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853753","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=853753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}