The Chicago Bears taking Zavion Thomas in the 3rd round of the 2026 NFL draft was a surprise. While losing D.J. Moore to a trade meant they could use some depth at the position, most didn’t expect the team to address it until day three of the draft. What made it even stranger is that experts saw Thomas as more of a special teams asset than a wide receiver. He’d never been overly productive on offense in college, but did have three touchdowns as a returner. Usually, you don’t take players like that so early.

Head coach Ben Johnson stated that the decision was based on several factors. One was the return ability, but that wasn’t all. They saw a wicked fast player who is dangerous with the ball in his hands and has the building blocks to become far more effective on offense with proper guidance. When the Bears convened for rookie minicamps earlier this month, they expected to see that type of player. According to Jeff Hughes of Sports Mockery, they saw something else entirely.

Thomas looked far more polished as a route runner than even they expected, leading some to realize he may be a factor on offense far sooner than planned.

Zavion Thomas arrived in Chicago with something to prove.

When your first question to coaches is, ‘Why do rookies typically fail in their first season?’ that tells you his plan was to avoid the same pitfall. Thomas aims to make an impact right away. To do that, he would have to show Johnson and his staff that he can be counted on to execute plays correctly. That meant running crisp routes and embracing his responsibilities as a blocker in the run game. He’s already checked one of those boxes and it isn’t even the start of training camp yet.

This is starting to feel like Darnell Mooney all over again. Not much was made of the Bears taking the receiver in the 5th round in 2021. They saw a speedy kid with potential to be a field-stretcher once he got used to the NFL. Then, in his first practices, he shocked coaches with his advanced understanding of the game. That earned him more looks in training camp, which translated to a spot in the starting lineup by September. It sounds like Zavion Thomas is on the same track.

It is getting to a point where we must trust Coach Johnson.

He was undoubtedly the one who pushed to draft Thomas when the Bears did. He’s the one calling the shots. One would think he’d have some credibility with such decisions after snagging Colston Loveland and Luther Burden last year. After all, Johnson had a hand in helping Detroit draft Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams. As a former wide receivers coach, he knows the position pretty well. It’s his offense. If he believes Thomas has the capability to become a weapon, then he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

There could be a myriad of reasons why a player wasn’t as productive in college as they should’ve been. Injuries are one. In Thomas’ case, there were constant continuity issues at the head coach and quarterback positions. Two of his head coaches were fired before the end of the season. His quarterback missed a month last season with injuries. This made it more difficult to get him the football. Thankfully, with Johnson running the show and Caleb Williams at quarterback, neither should be a problem moving forward.

Getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame is difficult. Unless you’re a no-doubt type of player like Brian Urlacher or Walter Payton, it takes a mixture of strong campaigning, public support, and luck to cross the finish line. Devin Hester, the greatest returner of all time, needed all three of those to finally get in. It makes some wonder who, if anybody, might gain a gold jacket next. There are plenty of candidates, including six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz and seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs. However, it’s starting to sound like the name to watch is cornerback Charles Tillman.

The man affectionately known to Chicago Bears fans as “Peanut” was the sometimes unheralded third superstar of those great defenses of the 2000s. He was big, tough, physical, and smart. Yet what separated him from everybody was his near-superhuman ability to force turnovers. There were 38 career interceptions that were impressive enough. That said, nobody could fathom his 44 career forced fumbles, most of them authored by his patented “Peanut Punch.” A move that has since been copied by the entire NFL. Eric Edholm of NFL.com believes the aura around this move could push Tillman into Canton in the near future.

“I think at least one more member of the Lovie Smith 2000’s Bears defense will get in after Brian Urlacher made it in 2018, and it’s possible that Olin Kreutz joins them from the offensive side one day. All three were among 128 HOF candidates a year ago, but none were named semifinalists. Briggs might have a slightly stronger résumé on paper than Tillman, and he’s been eligible one more year than Tillman, but don’t overlook the power of the Peanut Punch. Tillman dislodged a stunning 44 fumbles in his career, and his trademark punchout is still referenced regularly in media and by fans. That reputation, which seemingly has only increased since retirement, could be enough to push Tillman through.”

Charles Tillman meets all but one of the criteria for the Hall of Fame.

There are three categories that tend to impact the voting process. First is individual accolades. Did they put up impressive stats for a long enough period of time and make multiple Pro Bowls? Tillman checks that box. Next is championship success. Do they have a ring? Unfortunately, he came up just short of that accomplishment. Tillman had two opportunities to claim. First was in 2006 with the Bears and again in 2015 with the Carolina Panthers. He lost both times to Peyton Manning. Last but not least, you must leave a legacy on the game. Did you impact it in a way that people will remember you?

The Peanut Punch is living proof of that. Charles Tillman changed the way the game is played, especially for defensive backs. They went from focusing on interceptions and tackling to punching at the football whenever ball carriers reached the second level. Some of the biggest highlights every season feature a safety or cornerback lurking from behind and punching the ball out. All of that started with Tillman. He fundamentally changed the way future NFL players operate on the field.

Tillman faces stiff competition.

Patrick Peterson and Richard Sherman will soon be gunning for their own spots in Canton. Peterson was more decorated as a player, while Sherman has the ring. Both will present more straightforward cases for enshrinement. Tillman is somebody who needs a large swell of public support to get voters on his side. While his case is obvious to Bears fans, the same won’t be true for those making the decisions. These are people who left Bill Belichick out of first-ballot status. They are not an easy crowd to win over.

The good news is that the continuing ascent of the Peanut Punch in NFL lore has kept Tillman’s name present even among younger fans. They wish to know the origins of that description, leading to the discovery of the former Bears cornerback. It feels like only a matter of time before this reaches a point where the voters have no choice but to put him in. Other players have gotten their gold jacket for less. Ask Joe Namath.

The Chicago Bears trading D.J. Moore was unfortunate. Fans still had fresh memories of his incredible catches over the past season, particularly the ones that put away the Green Bay Packers in December and January. Trading one of the season’s biggest heroes just felt wrong. At the same time, everybody knew it was a possibility. Chicago had serious salary-cap concerns heading into the offseason. Moore’s contract was one of the biggest on the payroll. Moving him would get them back under the cap. So when the deal with Buffalo went public, not many were surprised. However, money wasn’t the only motivation for the move. Head coach Ben Johnson also played a part.

It’s an open secret that Johnson now controls the Bears’ roster, a fact that was likely negotiated as part of his contract when he came over from Detroit. He wanted to have a say over personnel decisions. Every major move since then has come with his signature. That includes trading Moore. According to Sports Mockery insider Jeff Hughes, that decision wasn’t solely motivated by financial reasons. Johnson also had doubts about the wide receiver’s commitment to working hard enough.

“But he also needs guys who will buy into his style because he works these guys really f**king hard. And Ben’s not going to have somebody here who’s going to lazily go through the program. A George Pickens would be out of here in a week. He would never do any of the things Ben needs him to do. And I don’t think DJ Moore loved doing a lot of those things.

I think that’s why they were willing to get rid of DJ Moore. And DJ was productive and a good Bear. But Ben now wants the guys that are going to be his definition of what a Bear is.”

Ben Johnson is a grinder. Clearly, he thinks Moore is not.

That doesn’t mean the wide receiver has a poor work ethic. One can’t be as productive as he is every year without working hard. However, it appears Johnson sensed that Moore was always holding back a little every day, never going the full 100%. This is why you often saw fans accusing him of lagging on routes. He wasn’t running them at full speed, leading to misfires between him and Caleb Williams. Johnson saw those plays, too. In fact, he probably watched them multiple times when reviewing game film every week.

At some point, it is likely he got tired of the inconsistency and so throttled back on Moore’s usual number of targets. The 85 he had last season was the second-lowest of his career. Between the start of the 2023 season and the win over Cincinnati last year, Moore was targeted four times or less in just two games. After that game, it happened five times. Johnson shifted those targets to Colston Loveland, Luther Burden and Rome Odunze. In retrospect, that was a clear signal that Moore’s time in Chicago was winding down.

Johnson could’ve easily caved to outside pressure.

After all, Moore had delivered him two gigantic victories last season. Fans wouldn’t have blinked twice if the Bears chose to keep the receiver. Ben Johnson showed that he won’t let outside noise dictate his decisions. As helpful as the receiver was to a successful first season, the head coach is looking for players he feels can help him win a championship. Those types of players eat, sleep, live, and breathe the game of football. While Moore may love the game, it wasn’t enough to convince Johnson he’d all in.

Is that being unfair? It depends on who you ask. The fact remains that it was the head coach’s call. He wanted the change and he got it. Moore had a memorable three-year run with the organization. His two catches against Green Bay will live in franchise lore forever. Sadly, it takes more than that to win over this coach. It can’t just be about a small handful of big moments. Johnson wants guys who step up every single week.

The Chicago Bears didn’t have many believers when the 2025 season began and that bandwagon got even thinner when they fell to 0-2 in their first two games. However, led by head coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams, the team kick-started a miraculous turnaround that eventually featured six 4th-quarter comebacks, culminating in an 11-6 record. This won them the NFC North for the first time in seven years and a playoff berth. They went on to beat the Green Bay Packers in the wild card round.

Was that enough to earn some confidence from experts this year? That depends on who you ask. Some believe the Bears’ success last season was too fluky. They can’t rely on being able to come back that many times against and can’t expect the defense to lead the league in turnovers. One would think this would lead to some tepid record predictions. Surprisingly, that is not the case. NFL.com’s Tom Blair ran through the Bears’ entire schedule and has them finishing 11-6 again, sparked by a stellar seven-game win streak after the bye. What gave him the confidence to do this?

The Chicago Bears still have Johnson and Williams.

“A 2-4 start to the year will have Bears doomers dancing about the unsustainability of last season’s success, which relied plenty on takeaways and comebacks. They might even forget just how good Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams looked together, including when they were pushing the Rams to the wire in the playoffs. To me, that duo gives Chicago a pretty solid eight-win floor. After that, your expectations will probably hinge on whether or not you think the Bears can pull off two or three more, and I do: back-to-back victories over the participants in Super Bowl LX, including a prime-time road triumph over the defending champs, and a Thanksgiving Day win over Detroit to set up the first season sweep of that series for Chicago since 2021.”

The Bears will go as their offense goes.

Most of the focus this offseason has been on trying to help Dennis Allen and the defense. Some important additions were made such as safeties Coby Bryant and 1st round pick Dillon Thieneman. Linebacker Devin Bush arrived as a free agent, while cornerback Malik Muhammad and defensive tackle Jordan Van Den Berg provide exciting youth to their respective positions. Still, it hasn’t erased concerns about the team’s pass rush. Unless that somehow fixes itself this year, the defense won’t be entering top 10 territory.

As Blair surmised, this season will go through Johnson and Williams. They carried the load last season and are well-positioned to do so again. The offense has firepower across the board. Rome Odunze and Luther Burden should form a dynamic tandem at wide receiver. D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai remain at running back after helping the Chicago Bears rank 3rd in rushing last season. Yet the true strength of this team might be its tight ends. Colston Loveland emerged as a star down the stretch last season, while Cole Kmet remained as steady and dependable as ever.

Throw promising rookie Sam Roush into that mix, and it’s hard to imagine many teams stopping the Bears.

Johnson faces a tough challenge.

The Bears have made the playoffs two years in a row only one time in the past 34 years. That came in 2005 and 2006 when they won back-to-back division titles and reached the Super Bowl. They did that with an elite defense and a strong running game. The problem was that they also got help from a largely weak division. Detroit was terrible, Minnesota was in upheaval, and Green Bay was in the midst of an identity crisis with an aging Brett Favre. There will be no such benefits this time. The NFC North remains stacked with good teams.

The Packers made the playoffs.

Detroit swept the Bears in the regular season last year.

Minnesota almost did the same and just added Kyler Murray at quarterback.

How Johnson navigates those six matchups will determine everything about this season. He certainly won’t be intimidated by the challenge. It comes down to how much he can help Williams improve as a quarterback. Beating good teams requires more than just explosive plays. You need efficiency. That is the primary goal for this season. If Williams can learn to play the chess game and become more of a distributor, the Bears will take control of far more games early.

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has certain philosophies about offensive football. He’s made them pretty obvious over the past few years. He wants a physical, dominant running game and to utilize play-action off of it. Everybody on the field must be willing to block. The quarterback must strive for a high completion percentage (70%). All of these things connect to greater offensive success. Perhaps the one stat he obsesses over the most isn’t talked about enough. He wants yard after the catch.

“We’re going to go back to the basics, and that’s the fundamentals of each position, blocking, tackling, catching the football, running after the catch, ball security.”

You don’t need to look very hard to recognize how seriously Johnson takes YAC. It is evident in almost all of his personnel moves since arriving in Chicago. Colston Loveland and Luther Burden both had that capability. The same is true for Kalif Raymond and Zavion Thomas. Yards after the catch is a big deal because not only does it make Johnson’s life as a play caller easier, but it also eats into the confidence of opposing defenses. Teams that excel in YAC tend to win more games.

Ben Johnson is a math guy, and he sees the numbers.

You’ll notice upon digging into the stats that almost every Super Bowl champion since 2015 has the same thing in common. They all had at least 2,000 yards after the catch for the season. Only three teams in that stretch didn’t. Tampa Bay managed without it in 2020. They had Tom Brady. Philadelphia came up 12 yards short in 2017 and the Denver Broncos did make it in 2015. They had one of the best defenses in NFL history. Everybody else, including the Seattle Seahawks, last season cleared the bar.

The Bears came up short in that department last year, managing 1,874 yards after the catch. Keep in mind that all three offenses that Ben Johnson ran in Detroit cleared at least 2,200 yards. So you can bet he wasn’t happy with the final result. That is a major reason he focused on improving team speed with new arrivals like Raymond and Thomas. Both have return experience, meaning they know how to break tackles for extra yards.

Johnson understands it’s about maximizing opportunities.

Yards after the catch make life much easier on an offense. Part of that is because it lessens the need to execute long drives. If you’re forced to, say, conduct 12-13 plays per drive vs. 9-10, it increases the odds of making a mistake that leads either to a turnover or a punt. Every little margin matters, especially when the quality of the opponent increases in the playoffs. That is the problem the Bears ran into against Los Angeles. The Rams were good at limiting YAC throughout the season, and it forced Caleb Williams to be more efficient.

That led to three costly interceptions. Ben Johnson knows that could’ve been avoided had the receivers and tight ends done a better job at creating yards for themselves. You can bet this will be a major emphasis in the summer. He wants everybody thinking score every time they touch the football. Fight for those extra yards. Pressure the defense on each play. It isn’t just about wanting to dominate the opponent. There is an underlying strategy he wants to exploit.

The Chicago Bears have more spring practices to go through. Aside from getting players back and bringing the young guys up to speed, it is a great chance for the coaches to assess where the roster is before training camp. Often, they may find that a position they thought would be okay has some issues they’re uncomfortable with. This is why you see teams make late additions to the roster by signing a prominent veteran in free agency before training camp.

Given where things stand and what head coach Ben Johnson may see in OTAs next month, here are some players the Bears may look to add, ranked by the probability of it happening.

The Chicago Bears have a few notable names to monitor.

#5 – RB Najee Harris

Adding another prominent running back doesn’t seem necessary for the Bears. They already have D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, who were highly effective together last season. Still, this position is notorious for injuries. Can the Chicago bank on those two staying mostly healthy again? They decide to hedge their bets by bringing in Harris. The former 1st round pick has had a productive career with four-straight 1,000-yard seasons in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, last year was cut short by injuries. He’s still 28 years old and has a running style that would fit this offensive system quite well, with his good vision and contact balance.

#4 – OT Taylor Decker

It was a genuine shock when the Bears didn’t immediately sign Decker after he was waived by Detroit. It made so much sense. They needed a left tackle after Ozzy Trapilo’s injury. He has ties to Ben Johnson from their time together with the Lions. Unfortunately, it appears the former Pro Bowler cannot bring himself to play for a division rival, having too much loyalty to Detroit. Thus, the Bears pivoted to bring back Braxton Jones and signed former 1st round pick Jedrick Wills. That is the level of competition expected in training camp. However, minds can always change. Decker may feel the itch to play. The Bears may not like what they see from Jones and Wills in OTAs and decide to make a determined push to bring him in.

#3 – EDGE Cameron Jordan

This may surprise some people. Jordan played for Dennis Allen in New Orleans for years. One might think he would be the most obvious target for the Bears. However, it is pretty apparent that Jordan still carries himself like a full-time defensive end and will expect to be compensated like one. If he demands anything close to what he was making last year with the Saints ($9.77 million), that is too much for Chicago. Their cap space is already tight, and they don’t want to restructure other deals to make more. Not too much anyway. Still, Jordan had 10.5 sacks last season and is still an effective pass rusher. Maybe the two sides can find common ground.

#2 – CB Kenny Moore

This wouldn’t have even been on the list a week ago. However, the news that Kyler Gordon is injured yet again changes everything. He is their primary nickel cornerback. The team was victimized in the slot constantly during the 14 games he missed last season. The Bears can’t afford to go another year trusting that his body will suddenly become more durable. Moore has been one of the best nickel corners in the league over the past few years. Though 31 years old, he still showcased his versatility last season in Indianapolis, collecting an interception and 1.5 sacks. As emergency options go, this is as good as it gets.

#1 – EDGE Von Miller

The Chicago Bears don’t want to add a veteran edge rusher who will take too many snaps away from Austin Booker. At the same time, they badly need a third option that can get to the quarterback. Miller represents the perfect compromise. At 37, he no longer has the juice to play full snaps every week. That is fine. The Bears won’t need him to. They could utilize him as their rotational pass rusher. His nine sacks last season demonstrated that the future Hall of Famer can still be highly valuable in that role. He has ties to Allen from their brief time together in Denver, and Miller has a glowing reputation as a locker room leader. It isn’t about money for him at this point. He’s chasing one last chance at a Super Bowl.