Speed Is the Theme of the Bears Offseason
When you have success in the NFL, there is always the chance that you might never recapture the same glory or magic of said season.
The Bears’ defense helped propel the team to that 11-6 record, but their season was underwhelming if you look just below the surface.
The Defense Was Unsustainable
Much of the unit’s personnel was built around Matt Eberflus’s scheme, and Dennis Allen‘s scheme requires different personnel to run it. Because of this, the team was ill-equipped but tried to manage it while Ben Johnson righted the offense.
The defense was no doubt really good at forcing takeaways, which gave the offense more opportunities to score. Still, you need to stop elite offenses, especially in the playoffs, and the Bears were, for the most part, unsuccessful.
Offseason Changes
The first big splash the Bears made was at the safety spot with Coby Bryant. The Bears needed help because former safeties Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard were both pending free agents. While both were stalwarts in the defense, they also ended up signing only 1-year deals (Steelers, Patriots).
Coby Bryant comes over from the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks. He is younger than Kevin Byard and quite a bit faster, too. He is still growing and evolving into his place and can become an even larger piece to the defense for years to come.
The next area of weakness was the linebacker position. Both Tremaine Edmunds and TJ Edwards were constantly hunted in passing coverage, and the Bears needed to rectify that. Cutting Edmunds saved the Bears some cap, and that cap was spent across D’Marco Jackson and new addition Devin Bush.
Jackson obviously was a backup for the team last year, but played really well in the role when it opened up. Bush comes from the Browns and is much faster for Allen’s system than Edmunds was. Running a 4.3 as compared to Edmunds at 4.5.
Being able to cover the entire gridiron is crucial in Allen’s Cover 2 scheme. Plus, this allows other linebackers to focus on either blitzing or tackling in the backfield.
2026 Draft
The 2026 NFL Draft was very much a draft with few elite prospects. Instead, the ability to get any starters was few and far between.
1st round pick Dillon Thieneman was projected to go much earlier than 25th. However, he slipped by the teams’ passing on the safety out of Oregon, and the Bears were there to capitalize.
The rest of the class boasts obvious questions and upside. With Drew Dalman retiring, the Bears reinforced the position with a trade of Garrett Bradbury and 2nd round pick, Logan Jones, out of Iowa. Zavion Thomas is a speedster; however, questions remain about whether he can truly develop WR routes at the pro level.
The selections of Malik Muhammad and Jordan Van den Berg give the defense obvious upside.
All in all, the Bears stayed true to their message this offseason: none of the players they selected had an RAS score lower than 8.7. That was good enough to finish at first in terms of overall athleticism.
The Bears’ offseason might have been a bit of a floundering to some, but some players were brought in to hopefully take the North and never give it back.
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Categorized:Bears