The Bears may have to settle for the budget route at edge rusher, and that means looking past the splashy names fans wanted.
Chicago has been tied to Maxx Crosby in the imagination of the fan base, but that idea appears out of reach financially. With Ryan Poles leaning on the current group - Montez Sweat, Austin Booker and Dayo Odeyingbo - the Bears are still trying to patch a pass rush that managed just 33 sacks in 17 games, with only six teams finishing lower. Shemar Turner could eventually help once he’s back from injury, but he is still in recovery.
That’s why Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton floated a cheaper fix: trade a late 2027 draft pick for Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah.
"ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the Bears don't have the financial resources to take a big swing for Las Vegas Raiders edge-rusher Maxx Crosby. If that's true, Chicago can look to bolster its pass-rushing depth with a former first-round pick.
Last August, Kansas City placed Anudike-Uzomah on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, which sidelined him for the entire 2025 season. He's made minimal impact with the Chiefs, recording 41 tackles (eight for loss), three sacks and 19 pressures.
Yet Anudike-Uzomah showed brief promise during the 2024 campaign, playing 31 percent of the defensive snaps. Perhaps a restart with a new team that needs a pass-rusher would give him more opportunities to showcase his potential."
The comparison that jumps out is last year’s Joe Tryon-Shoyinka move, when the Bears tried to go cheap on a young, upside-driven defender and didn’t get much out of it. That’s the risk here too.
Still, Anudike-Uzomah is younger and comes with two more years left on his four-year, $11.82 million rookie deal, which makes him a cleaner fit for Chicago’s current budget. He also brings a different kind of athletic profile. Before the draft, he ran a 4.73-second 40-yard dash, and that kind of burst stands out in a room that needs more juice off the edge.
It wouldn’t be the kind of move that lights up the fan base, but it would add depth. Booker and Odeyingbo would still be battling for the starting job, and Anudike-Uzomah would have to find his place in the rotation.
Even then, the bigger question around Odeyingbo remains the same: whether he can start living up to his $48 million contract.
In Other News...
Bears Keep Facing The Same Pass Rush Question In July
The Bears are still looking at ways to steady a pass rush that can never really be ignored, and one familiar veteran keeps coming up as a possible answer. The 33-year-old edge rusher most recently spent time with the Cowboys, and he remains unsigned in mid-July after a string of short-term deals since leaving Houston in 2020. For Chicago, the appeal is pretty straightforward: a proven body on the edge, some experience to lean on, and another option if the front office wants to keep adding insurance before camp.
Spotrac has pegged his market value around $5.7 million, a reminder that even a late-summer addition would not come cheap for a player who was on a $3.4 million deal not long ago. The bigger question for the Bears is whether they want him as more than just a depth piece, because the fit is less about splash and more about how much help they still believe this defense needs before the real work of the season begins. [Read more 🡒]
Bears Have More Than One 2026 Breakout Fans Need To Watch
The Bears conversation about 2026 breakouts does not stop with Luther Burden III, because there are a few other young players who already flashed enough to make the next step feel realistic. Jahdae Walker, DMarco Jackson, Austin Booker and Josh Blackwell all showed enough in different stretches of last season to land on the radar, and each one sits in a spot where opportunity could matter as much as talent once the new year arrives.
Walkers late-season work gave the offense a glimpse of what he can do when the ball finds him, while Jackson made his presence felt on defense and Bookers return from injury brought real edge-rushing juice back into the picture. Blackwell is a little different, since his path depends on how the secondary sorts itself out, but he is the kind of depth piece who can move from useful to important quickly if the Bears need him. [Read more 🡒]