The 2026 NFL Draft is less than three weeks away. And while we do not know who the Chicago Bears will pick just yet, there is a growing consensus that the team will use one of its early picks (if not multiple selections) on a defensive lineman. It makes sense, too.
Seemingly, every mock draft has Chicago taking an edge rusher or interior defensive lineman. At this point in the offseason, the team’s needs along the defensive side of the trenches cannot be ignored for much longer. Hence, the upcoming NFL Draft is the perfect place to find players who can help fill some glaring needs. And while mock drafts aren’t necessarily a great predictive tool, they help us figure out which players are good fits and will be on the board when the Bears go on the clock.
Of course, this leads us to ask questions about why the front office didn’t do more to address those defensive line concerns earlier in the offseason. After all, the last thing you want to do, as a team, is back your front office into a corner and force the powers that be to pick a player because of need instead of opting for the best available prospect. Well, I think we have an answer.
The Athletic’s Mike Sando gets unfiltered NFL executives to discuss the offseason moves for teams around the league. And when it comes to the Bears, something one anonymous executive said helped explain why Chicago didn’t do more to improve the defensive line (bold emphasis is mine):
“The pass rush has been their biggest question on defense the last few years. It hasn’t really been the back end, where they’ve given contracts to Jaylon Johnson and their nickel (Kyler Gordon), drafted Tyrique Stevenson. They need to improve the D-line, but they couldn’t really do it because they are locked into guys with guaranteed money. They didn’t really address their biggest defensive need.”
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesThese contracts limited the Bears’ spending flexibility
For as much as we have discussed the franchise’s liquidity (or lack of it) as part of an explanation as to why the Bears didn’t spend more this offseason, there were legitimate spending limitations because of the team’s cap situation. As the anonymous executive quoted above points out, the Bears are locked into a handful of players with guaranteed money that they could not have dumped without complicating their cap situation.
A quick look at some players and contract situations that are tying up cap space in Chicago, with data from Over The Cap:
Dayo Odeyingbo — This particular 2025 free-agent signing hasn’t aged well for Bears General Manager Ryan Poles. Odeyingbo’s contract comes with $15.5 million in guaranteed salary and a $20.5 million cap number that eats up 6.6 percent of the team’s cap spending. The knee-jerk reaction would have been to cut Odeyingbo, but that move would have caused the Bears to lose $4 million in cap space and take on a dead-money hit of $24.5 million. A post-June 1 cut would have cleared up $500,000 in cap space, so that would not have helped matters.BLEACHER NATION MOCK DRAFTS: Rooney | Flowers
Grady Jarrett — Sigh. This free-agent addition from last year’s haul did not live up to his lofty contract in Year 1. And like Odeyingbo’s contract, the second year of Jarrett’s deal also ties Chicago’s hands. Jarrett is set to make $14.25 million in guarantees, has a cap number of $18.925 million, and has a deal that eats 6.1 percent of the team’s cap spending. Cutting Jarrett wouldn’t have cleared any cap space. Instead, a cut would have led to a $22.25 million dead money hit and a loss of $3.325 million in cap space. A post-June 1 cut would have cleared up $675,000, but a cut to create less than a million bucks worth of cap space isn’t sensible. Grady Jarrett celebrates after a sack. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images Kyler Gordon — I still have hope that Gordon will play his way back into the good graces of fans who left the 2025 season disappointed with the nickel cornerback’s performance. I’d be a wealthy man if I had a dollar for every suggestion to cut Gordon that hit my inbox, DMs, mentions, and comment section. And it wouldn’t be nearly enough to cover the $14.59 million loss in salary cap space and the $27.5 million dead money hit the team would take by actually pulling the trigger on that move. The structure of Gordon’s contract will keep him around through the 2027 season.SUBSCRIBE TO THE BN BEARS PODCAST: Apple | Spotify | YouTube
T.J. Edwards — I didn’t hate the Edwards extension last offseason. But I’m not too stubborn to say that was a whiff on my part. Perhaps it is easy to say that now, especially after injuries limited him to 10 games and just 569 defensive snaps. But it is definitely easy to point out after seeing the types of linebackers the team has since pivoted to for Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen’s defense, with Devin Bush and D’Marco Jackson set to start for Chicago. Edwards has a guaranteed salary of $8.25 million and $10.833 million cap number in 2026. Cutting Edwards would leave a dead money hit of more than $12.9 million and cause the Bears to lose more than $2 million in cap space.Sure, we could point to several different factors as to why the Bears weren’t more active or aggressive in free agency or the trade market to upgrade along the defensive line. But the reality is the Bears have no one to blame but themselves for their spending misses in 2025 that led to a quieter 2026. This isn’t to say that those players can’t turn it around this season. They certainly can! But they absolutely need to if this team is to reach its full potential.
2026 NFL Draft: Defensive Line Prospects Connected to the Bears
The result of this front office’s lack of moves via the trade and free agent market to bring in impact players due to cap constraints is that things have lined up for this team to use premium draft capital on defensive line help. On the surface, I don’t hate the concept. It could turn out that the best prospect available is a player at a defensive line position the Bears need to fill.
However, I do hate the idea of the Bears being pigeonholed into picking a player at a position of need when drafting the best player available is a far better use of draft capital. Nevertheless, I’ve rounded up some defensive line prospects I’ve seen connected to the Bears in recent mock drafts:
Malachi Lawrence, EDGE, Central Florida (Justin Melo, Sports Illustrated) Caleb Banks, defensive tackle, Florida (Ryan Wilson, CBS Sports) Zion Young, EDGE, Missouri (Wilson) Dani Dennis-Sutton, EDGE, Penn State (Mel Kiper Jr.) Mason Reiger, EDGE, Wisconsin (Matt Miller, ESPN) David Gusta, defensive tackle, Kentucky (Miller) Peter Woods, defensive tackle, Clemson (Charles Davis, NFL Media; Kiper, Miller) T.J. Parker, EDGE, Clemson (Eric Edholm, NFL Media)Do any of those players do anything for you? There are a handful of prospects who pique my interest. I look forward to finding out more about them ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Hence then, the article about why didn t the bears fix their defensive line in free agency was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Why Didn’t the Bears Fix Their Defensive Line in Free Agency )
Also on site :