The Bears’ training camp injury list didn’t raise many alarms at first, but Kyler Gordon’s name changed the tone fast.
Chicago opened camp by placing five players on the Physically Unable to Perform list, and most of the group came with straightforward explanations. T.J.
Edwards and Ozzy Trapilo weren’t surprises. Noah Sewell and Shemar Turner are coming off surgeries, so there doesn’t appear to be much panic there either.
Gordon is the different case.
He barely took part in OTAs after missing all but five games last season, counting the playoffs, and general manager Ryan Poles said the corner is dealing with a calf issue. Poles made it clear the Bears are frustrated, but also determined to get Gordon right.
"He was here all offseason training, getting right. We had a delay in that.
All hands on deck to get him back," Poles said, speaking of Gordon. "Coach alluded to it before in terms of his availability, or the lack thereof.
Obviously, he's frustrated. We're frustrated.
We just want him back. He helps our football team.
We have to move forward with the guys we have and when he's ready to go, he'll be ready to go. Everybody here is putting all their time and effort into getting him back right.
So that's where that's at."
When Poles was pressed for a return date, he didn’t have one. He did, however, offer a blunt warning about what comes next.
"when he gets back, we need him to stay back."
He expanded on that point when asked again about Gordon.
"(It's) a little bit of a repetitive situation that we've got to get fixed," Poles said. "And then when he gets back, he's going to have to earn that trust back and that dependability.
Because we've got to put all the guys in a good position to be successful, and the up-and-down moving guys around is really tough. So, he'll have to earn that back when he gets back."
Head coach Ben Johnson was just as direct when asked what message he has sent to Gordon.
"Get healthy," Johnson said.
The bigger issue for Chicago is that Gordon’s contract already points to a messy future. The Bears signed him to a three-year, $40 million extension in April of 2025, making him the highest-paid slot corner in the NFL. That deal begins this year, and the early returns are not encouraging.
The problem only gets more complicated when you look ahead to 2027. Over The Cap says Gordon’s $10 million base salary for that year became fully guaranteed on March 13 of this year. Under that setup, even a post-June 1 cut in 2027 would leave the Bears with $12.5 million in dead money and only $800,000 in cap savings.
Spotrac tells a different version of the story. In its accounting, Gordon’s $10 million base salary for 2027 does not become fully guaranteed until the third day of the next league year. If that’s the case, Chicago could cut or trade him before June 1 and clear $8.3 million from his $13.3 million cap hit, while eating $5 million in dead money.
Spotrac also shows that a post-June 1 cut would split that $5 million in dead money between 2027 and 2028, while creating $10.8 million in cap space.
Both outlets agree on the trade side of the equation for a post-June 1, 2027 move, since the guarantee date would no longer matter.
A trade would obviously be cleaner for the Bears than a straight release, but that assumes another team would want an injury-prone corner who could be coming off two straight seasons with major missed time.
For now, the reality in Chicago looks pretty simple: Gordon is almost certainly not finishing the final year of his deal, 2028, in a Bears uniform. The immediate focus is just getting him healthy enough to contribute this year. After that, the real challenge is figuring out 2027, and whether the Bears can avoid carrying a contract that already looks like a headache.
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