Day 61 of the Chicago Bears offseason. It was a chocolate chip pancake kind of morning. But now that my late breakfast has been devoured, I can dig into some Bears thoughts.
The last snap of the football season came in February. Our next meaningful snap will come in August. But that isn’t stopping folks from cooking up NFL power rankings this time of year. Pete Prisco (CBS Sports) ranks the league’s 32 teams now that the early waves of free agency have crashed along the shore and settled. Mason Cameron does the same at PFF. If you’re curious to know where the Bears rank, then you’ve come to the right place. Chicago’s football team slides into a top-10 spot at No. 9 in Prisco’s rankings. And over at PFF, the Bears find themselves in the middle-of-the-pack at No. 15. This is what Prisco had to say about the state Bears now that the dust has settled on the big free agency moves:After center Drew Dalman retired, they traded for Garrett Bradbury to fill that role, which is a downgrade. Left tackle is also a concern. They also didn’t address the pass-rush help they need.
And this is what Cameron said about Chicago’s football team at PFF:The retirement of center Drew Dalman and the trade of D.J. Moore, combined with a deep list of pending free agents on defense, set the stage for a busy offseason in Chicago. Trading for Garrett Bradbury filled the need left by Dalman at center, and the signings of Coby Bryant and Devin Bush addressed the voids on defense left by the departures of Kevin Byard and Tremaine Edmunds.
Despite some of the departures, such as Byard and cornerback Nahshon Wright, directly impacting the Bears’ league-leading takeaway numbers, the new additions should help stabilize a defense that ranked 29th in average yards per play allowed in 2025.
On paper, the Bears have downgraded in several areas. Garrett Bradbury isn’t at Drew Dalman’s level. This isn’t to say that Bradbury can’t play at a respectable level. And it’s not as if this team needs him to be elite. Heck, Bradbury is in a spot where he could have his best year yet while sandwiched between NFL Protector of the Year Joe Thuney at left guard and Jonah Jackson (who I thought played at a Pro Bowl level) at left guard. But it would be unfair to ignore that Chicago is taking a short-term step back as it goes from Dalman in 2025 to Bradbury in 2026. How much of a step back will be determined by how Bradbury plays when games of consequence kick off in September.PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE BN BEARS PODCAST: Apple | Spotify | YouTube
As for left tackle, I don’t think the Bears are done working on rounding out that position group. This team has the foundation of a solid camp competition with a four-year starter (Braxton Jones) and a post-hype sleeper (Jedrick Wills Jr.) headlining the battle. But to really kick things up a notch, the Bears should probably draft someone who could compete with those guys (along with Theo Benedet). Prisco is also right to point out that Chicago hasn’t addressed its pass rush concerns. For what it’s worth, the team has filled some holes in its depth along the interior defensive line. But that can’t be all it does if it plans on being competitive in 2025. © Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images This is how I would rank the Bears’ four biggest needs at this stage of the offseason: (1) A butt-kicking defensive lineman (inteiror DL, edge … it doesn’t matter where they play, but it matters that they can play), (2) Starting CB opposite of Jaylon Johnson, (3) Starting S next to Coby Bryant, (4) A WR3 who can bump Jahdae Walker and Kalif Raymond down a spot and make that position group as much of a strength as it was last season. You probably think WR isn’t something that should be on the list of needs. But I do not want to go into this season worrying about the drop-off from DJ Moore to Kalif Raymond or Jahdae Walker. Adding a playmaker who makes Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson’s defense that much more dangerous should be high on the priority list every NFL Draft weekend.BN BEARS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook | Twitter | BlueSky
The Seattle Seahawks are wasting no time announcing that they are exercising the fifth-year options for cornerback Devon Witherspoon and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. I’d like to think that fellow 2023 NFL Draft classmate, Bears right tackle Darnell Wright, will also get the word soon. And I’d like to imagine that the fifth-year option announcement would be a precursor to an extension ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reports that the NFL might deploy its command center to lend a helping hand if the league ends up using replacement refs. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I fear it will. There is no way that it should come down to it, but the NFL hasn’t given me much hope that it would do the right/logical thing with how things have gone recently around the league when it comes to making what should be sensible decisions.MORE BEARS FROM BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad-Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter
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