The Chicago Bears can feel pretty good about one part of their roster heading into training camp. Another, though, looks like a real question mark.
On offense, the tight end room stands out as one of the NFL’s best. On defense, the pass rush is where the warning lights start flashing.
At tight end, Chicago has built something dangerous. Cole Kmet arrived in 2020 and spent four seasons as a starter, with his strongest stretch coming in 2023.
His production has fallen off since then, but the Bears’ rough 2024 season had plenty to do with that. Caleb Williams was under constant pressure, and the offense rarely had room to breathe.
Then came another major addition. Chicago passed on Tyler Warren at the 2025 NFL Draft and took Colston Loveland with the No. 10 pick, a move that drew plenty of criticism at the time.
A year later, Loveland is being treated as the No. 1 tight end in his second season with the Bears. As a rookie, he led the team with 58 catches, 713 receiving yards and six touchdowns.
The group got deeper when the Bears used the No. 69 pick in this year’s draft on Sam Roush, who has now signed his rookie deal. He is not expected to match Kmet or Loveland as a receiver, but Chicago should have a role for him as a blocker.
Ben Johnson leans on tight ends in his 13 personnel packages, and Kmet’s ability to block helped keep him on the field even when his target share dipped last season. Roush could follow a similar path.
That combination gives the Bears a tight end room that could feature two players who would be stars elsewhere. It is versatile, and it is going to be a focal point for opposing defenses.
The edge rush, though, is a different story.
Montez Sweat is not the issue. He put up 10 sacks in 17 games last season and clearly belongs in a different category than the rest of the group. The concern is who lines up next to him.
Right now, that picture includes Dayo Odeyingbo and Austin Booker. Odeyingbo is coming off the worst season of his six-year NFL career.
He managed one sack in eight games before a season-ending Achilles injury. The year before, with the Colts, he had only three sacks in 17 games.
That kind of output has pushed him into bust territory, even if he gets another shot to change the narrative this season.
Booker got his chance after Odeyingbo went down, and he made more of it. In 10 games, he finished with 4.5 sacks and now enters his third NFL season still on his rookie contract.
Odeyingbo, meanwhile, is attached to a three-year, $48 million deal, which raises the stakes. If he cannot win the starting job, the Bears may need to move on.
So while Chicago has real reasons to like its offensive upside, the pass rush is the area that should worry fans most. If Booker wins the job opposite Sweat, the Bears at least have a younger player with more upside.
In Other News...
Brian Urlacher Sees Justin Fields In A Spot Bears Fans Feared
Justin Fields latest move has him back in the kind of quarterback conversation Bears fans know all too well, only this time the setting is Kansas City. The former Chicago starter was dealt from the Jets to the Chiefs for a sixth-round pick, a low-cost swing that suddenly puts him in one of the leagues most scrutinized quarterback rooms. For a player whose career has already been defined by change and pressure, the landing spot matters almost as much as the move itself.
Brian Urlacher sees the upside in the situation, pointing to the chance for Fields to work under Andy Reid and observe Patrick Mahomes up close. It is the sort of setup that can either sharpen a young quarterback or leave him waiting for a chance, and the uncertainty around Kansas Citys depth chart only adds to the intrigue. Bears fans who once wondered whether Fields could be developed properly will be watching this one with a familiar mix of curiosity and regret. [Read more 🡒]
New Bears Reporter Just Put Josh Sweat Buzz On Another Level
A passing comment from Devan Kaney, the Bears new beat reporter, has only added fuel to the Josh Sweat chatter around Chicago. On air, Kaney referenced her connection to the former Eagles pass rusher, and in a rumor cycle like this, even a small aside can send fans and insiders back to the tape looking for clues.
Sweat has already been floating through trade speculation, with Green Bay also mentioned as a possible fit because of his relationship with that teams defensive coordinator. For the Bears, the intrigue is obvious: a proven edge presence would be a meaningful addition, but for now there is still no official confirmation that anything is actually moving in that direction. [Read more 🡒]
The Bears 2021 Draft Looks Even More Painful In Hindsight
The Bears 2021 draft keeps looking rougher every time the franchises recent history gets revisited, because the class was supposed to help stabilize a roster that needed immediate answers. Instead, the first three picks have become a reminder of how thin the margin is between building a foundation and missing chances to fill obvious needs, especially when a team is trying to turn the page quickly.
With the benefit of hindsight, the debate around that class is less about one bad swing than a chain of choices that never quite lined up with the rosters long-term needs. Even the later picks invite second-guessing, since Chicago passed on other options who could have offered cleaner value and more dependable depth, which is why the 2021 class still lingers as a painful what-if for Bears fans. [Read more 🡒]