This is where the step-forward thesis really starts to bite in our 20 Most Important Bears of 2026 series.
The top nine is heavy with two kinds of players: the pass-catchers who have to take a Year-2 leap for the offense to climb, and the pass rushers who have to materialize out of a group the front office flatly refused to reinforce. If the Bears are going to turn 11 wins into something bigger, this is the group that decides it.
Today we take the countdown all the way to No. 4, with the top three still to come the rest of the week.
No. 9 – EDGE Austin Booker
Start with the boldest expression of the whole thesis. The Bears added no meaningful edge help this offseason. Their entire plan for fixing the pass rush is that the fix is already on the roster, and Booker is the clearest test of that plan.
There’s real reason to think he’s ready for it. In just 10 games last season, Booker put up 4.5 sacks, a forced fumble, five tackles-for-loss, and 12 quarterback hits, production that, prorated over a full slate, points to a player on the verge of a breakout. ESPN’s 2026 projections see it too, pegging him for 734 snaps and 6.5 sacks, which would put him right behind Montez Sweat as a genuine second source of pressure off the edge. That’s exactly the internal answer the front office is banking on.
A third-year step from him is one of the most important developments that could happen on this defense all season, precisely because there’s no free-agent safety net behind it. If he pops, the internal-answer gamble looks brilliant, and the defense’s ceiling jumps. If he doesn’t, the front office’s decision to stand pat at the position looks a lot worse, and the whole defense feels it. High variance, enormous stakes, no fallback. That’s a top-nine player on this list even though a talent ranking would have him lower, and we’d argue that gap is exactly what “most important” is supposed to capture.
Jordan Love is sacked by Bears defensive end Austin Booker during the first half of an NFC Wild Card Round game at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesNo. 8 – DT Gervon Dexter Sr.
Dexter is the interior engine of pillar two, and honestly, he might be the most important pass rusher on this roster who isn’t Montez Sweat. Interior pressure is the kind that actually wrecks a play: collapse the pocket up the middle, and a quarterback has nowhere to climb. That’s the juice this front has been missing, and Dexter’s the guy most likely to provide it.
Now, I don’t want to oversell the leap. He’s gone from 2.5 sacks as a rookie to five in 2024 to six last year. A climb, but a gradual one, not some overnight breakout. What makes me buy the arrow pointing up isn’t just the sack total. It’s that he’s playing for a payday. He’s in a contract year, and he switched to Drew Rosenhaus’ agency this spring. A talented interior rusher who’s motivated to cash in, at the exact spot this defense needs to win? Sign me up.
And the best part, for the purposes of this list: none of it depends on the front office doing anything else. Dexter’s already here. If the bet on internal answers pays off, he’s a big reason why.
No. 7 – CB Jaylon Johnson
Johnson is pillar four made flesh, and his 2025 was the counterfactual that proves the point. A groin injury wiped out his summer, gave out again by halftime of his Week 2 debut, and limited him to seven appearances, and the version that came back for the stretch run wasn’t the real him. Without their best corner, and with the room decimated around him, the defense sagged everywhere: soft against the run, spotty on the rush, exposed on the back end.
Now remember what he is at full strength. The two seasons before the injury: back-to-back Pro Bowls, six interceptions (one a pick-six), 18 pass breakups, and quarterbacks actively game-planning away from him. That last part is the whole thing. When Johnson erases half the field, the rush doesn’t have to win instantly, and everyone else plays faster.
He took every rep at OTAs and minicamp, so the arrow’s pointing the right way. The Bears don’t need him to be more than a top-tier corner. They just need that for a full season, and his health is the single biggest swing factor on the defense outside the pass rush.
No. 6 – TE Colston Loveland
Now the pass-catchers, and this is where pillar three lives. Loveland’s rookie year was a slow burn that detonated down the stretch: 58 catches, 713 yards, six touchdowns, and enough late-game trust from Caleb Williams that “Third-and-Colston” became a thing in the locker room. ESPN projects him to lead the team in targets and catches in 2026, and I won’t argue.
The reason he’s this high is what his emergence unlocks. Johnson’s offense feeds on two-tight-end looks and on making defenses choose between bad options, and a tight end who wins as a receiver is what makes those looks genuinely dangerous instead of just window dressing. His route-running is a problem for linebackers, his size is a problem for safeties, and he can line up anywhere. A real second-year jump turns this offense from something defenses can plan for into something they can’t — the top-10-to-top-3 leap in a single player.
Nov 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Chicago Bears tight end Colston Loveland (84) runs for a gain past Minnesota Vikings cornerback Fabian Moreau (23) during the first quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn ImagesNo. 5 – WR Luther Burden III
Burden is the movable chess piece, and his Year-2 leap might be the most fun variable on the roster. Johnson loves motion, loves the slot, loves manufacturing touches for a guy who can turn a five-yard catch into a 50-yard play, and that’s exactly what Burden is.
We saw it in flashes. He took a back seat to Odunze and Moore early, then turned into a genuine weapon down the second half of his rookie year: 47 catches, 652 yards, and all the run-after-catch juice that made the Bears fall for him in the first place. He’s been the talk of the offseason as a breakout pick, and ESPN’s projection (75 catches, 937 yards) bets on the jump landing.
The step here is specific. A second-year leap from Burden is what turns Johnson’s already-clever menu from good to genuinely unfair. Get a weapon defenses have to account for on every snap no matter where he lines up, and everything else opens up. The offense’s climb depends on him becoming the exact problem he was drafted to be.
No. 4 – EDGE Montez Sweat
Sweat is the whole thing. Everything I just said about Booker breaking out and Dexter cashing in assumes Sweat is out front doing Sweat things; genuinely wrecking games, not just occupying a blocker.
The good news is we’ve seen it. Ten sacks last year, a spot on the league’s top-100, and he’s still the one guy up front that offensive coordinators have to build a plan around. Ben Johnson doesn’t hide how much he loves him, and I get it.
Here’s the stakes, though. The front office looked at a shaky pass rush and basically said, “we’re good, the answers are already in the building.” That call only works if Sweat is a difference-maker. If he is, the young guys around him get room to grow into their roles. If he isn’t, there’s no cavalry coming; they didn’t sign one. That’s about as important as a non-quarterback gets, which is exactly why he’s this high.
Bears DL Montez Sweat (98) deflects a pass attempt thrown by Bengals QB Joe Flacco (16) at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Nov. 2, 2025. / © Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesThat’s Nos. 9 through 4: three pass rushers who have to justify the stand-pat offseason, two pass-catchers who have to take the leap that turns a good offense into a scary one, and the corner whose health may decide whether this defense can close in January. Every one of them moves the ceiling.
Which leaves the top three, and they’re getting posts of their own. Up next, No. 3.
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