The Bears didn’t just add a safety this offseason - they added a player one NFL coordinator clearly thinks can do a little bit of everything.
Chicago signed former Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl-winning safety Coby Bryant to a three-year, $40 million deal, and the move stood out immediately as one of the team’s best of the offseason. With Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker both gone in free agency and no intention of bringing either back, the Bears needed help on the back end. Bryant, who is 27, fit the bill.
That belief got another boost when ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrapped up his league survey series, asking executives, coaches and scouts to rank the best players at each position. Bryant didn’t crack the top 10 among safeties, but he did land at No. 14, and one coordinator had plenty to say about him.
"I love him. He's a corner by trade, so he has good feet and ball skills, but he will hit, too, now."
That blend is exactly why Bryant looks like such a strong fit in Chicago. Last season, he posted 66 tackles, seven pass deflections, four tackles for loss, a career-high four interceptions, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery in 15 games. In the postseason, he added 10 tackles and two pass deflections.
The appeal goes beyond the box score. Bryant has built a reputation for handling the full safety job description - coverage, recognition and physical play. He can close on the ball, break up passes and bring the kind of contact that changes how offenses attack the middle of the field.
Chicago’s defense already forced a league-high 33 turnovers last season, but the bigger issue was what happened when teams kept moving the ball. The Bears allowed 361.8 yards per game, which ranked 29th in the NFL, and their pass defense finished 22nd at 227.2 yards allowed per game. The run defense was part of the problem, but the secondary didn’t exactly steady things, either.
That’s why the additions matter. Bryant, rookie first-round pick Dillon Thieneman and linebacker Devin Bush are all expected to help the defense tighten up.
Bryant and Thieneman, in particular, give the Bears more chances to make stops in coverage and against the run. They may not match the turnover totals Byard and Brisker put up, but the hope is that they’ll be more reliable snap to snap.
For Chicago, that makes Bryant a pretty straightforward win. The Bears are better positioned now than they were before he arrived, and the expectation is that the defense will keep trending upward as the 2026 season unfolds.
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