The Chicago Bears may be getting too cute at the worst possible time.
According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, teams have reached out to Chicago about defensive tackle Gervon Dexter, and trade talks have taken place. That part, at least, is easy to understand.
General managers are supposed to take the call. Actually pulling the trigger on a deal for a 24-year-old defender who started all 17 games last season would be a very different matter.
Dexter is entering the final year of his rookie contract, which helps explain why the Bears would even listen. If Chicago doesn’t intend to extend him, a trade would guarantee some return now instead of leaving the club to hope for a compensatory draft pick later.
On paper, that’s tidy business. On the field, it could leave the Bears with one more problem they don’t need.
That’s because the defensive line already looks like a concern. Chicago had trouble generating steady pressure last season, and the run defense wasn’t exactly sturdy either.
Dexter, who posted a career-high six sacks, is one of the few interior pieces who has shown real progress. Shipping him out weeks before the opener would make that group thinner, not stronger.
He’s not a finished product, and nobody is pretending he’s an All-Pro. But he has improved in each of his three seasons, and at 24, he’s still trending in the right direction. That profile usually earns a team patience, not a premature exit.
The Bears also aren’t in the same place they were when every move felt like part of a long rebuild. They won the NFC North last season, ended a long playoff victory drought, and now have a quarterback on a cheap rookie deal. That gives Chicago the flexibility to keep building around a roster that can win now.
Trading a starting-caliber defensive tackle for a mid-round pick would run against that idea.
And there’s another issue: who replaces him? Grady Jarrett is still a useful piece, but he’s 33 and shouldn’t be expected to shoulder the whole interior.
Beyond that, the depth chart is filled mostly with rotational bodies and an unproven rookie. The Bears can’t just assume the pressure and run defense will hold up if Dexter walks out the door.
There is a version of this where a deal makes sense. If Ryan Poles can turn Dexter into an offensive tackle or another proven defender at a position of real need, that’s worth exploring. But moving him just to collect a future draft asset would be a hard sell.
The contract question matters, too. Chicago may simply think Dexter is headed toward a price tag it doesn’t want to meet.
That’s fair enough; pass-rushing interior linemen get paid, and a six-sack season can change the conversation fast. Still, the Bears don’t have to resolve that today.
They can keep him for another season, let him contribute to a team with legitimate postseason hopes, and revisit the contract after seeing whether the improvement continues. If he leaves next spring, Chicago still got four inexpensive years out of a second-round pick.
Unless another team gets unusually generous, that should be the end of it. NFL clubs around roster cut time usually aren’t known for generosity.
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