The NFL made its ruling at the start of the new league year. Despite significant evidence showing Ian Cunningham was the primary football decision-maker for the Atlanta Falcons, the Chicago Bears would not receive two compensatory draft picks per the Rooney Rule. It was a baffling decision. Everybody involved in the situation believes the Bears were entitled to compensation. Even the national media couldn’t understand the NFL’s stubbornness regarding such a technicality. It felt like they were trying to avoid admitting they were wrong and didn’t mind screwing the Bears in the process. One would think that would be the end of it, right? Not if George McCaskey has anything to say about it.

The team chairman and owner has never been known for being overly meddlesome in league affairs. That said, he can be pretty active when he feels the cause is worthy. This is one of those cases. McCaskey, along with team president Kevin Warre and general manager Ryan Poles, flew to New York for a meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell to reinforce their appeal over the comp picks. It is hoped that this added pressure from an actual owner might sway the decision.

George McCaskey is in uncharted territory.

The NFL has made adjustments to compensatory picks before, but never this close to the draft. As of now, the closest it has happened is 44 days before opening night. There are only 23 days now until the 2026 draft begins. Chicago would shatter that record if they somehow convinced the NFL to reverse its decision. Knowing how the league has operated for years, it is hard to imagine it will be willing to rock the boat that much. Then again, they are the ones who created this mess with the funky language in the Rooney Rule. They are duty-bound to clean it up.

Making this matter even messier is an ongoing dispute with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is attacking the Rooney Rule. He states it constitutes blatant race and sex discrimination and not hiring based on merit. Most see it as the highly conservative state’s way of further curbing diversity hiring policies in the state. If Goodell were to admit the NFL made a mistake with the Bears’ decision, it wouldn’t be a great look. That makes it more difficult to get it overturned.

McCaskey is doing the right thing.

What has happened to his franchise is an injustice. They followed the spirit of the Rooney Rule, helping Cunningham elevate his profile to a point where he was hired to run his own NFL franchise. According to the rule, any minority hire in that situation earns his former team two 3rd round compensatory picks. Yet the NFL is holding out because the Falcons chose to give Matt Ryan the title of director of football operations, even though he was never going to actually run the scouting operation and pick players.

The league basically looked at his title and didn’t bother gathering any further information. He’s the primary football guy, so no picks for you. George McCaskey may not be the sharpest owner around, but he knows an injustice when he sees one. His presence in the appeal process might give Goodell pause on the matter since this isn’t something McCaskey does often. Maybe it’s a losing effort, but it wasn’t a fight the Bears were ready to abandon. They were cheated and intend to make their displeasure known.

One of the things that is so difficult to find in head coaches across any sport is self-reflection. These guys reached the top of their professions by operating a certain way. Many of them can’t imagine that way can be wrong and require changes. It’s the players or the front office that are wrong. However, there are a select few willing to look inward and ask a simple question: Was I, in some way, the problem? Head coach Ben Johnson admitted that was the case when he took time to look back on the 2025 season.

Nobody will ever dispute that last year was a success. Taking a 5-12 team to 11-6, winning the division, and winning a playoff game in your first season is something no other Chicago Bears head coach has ever done. Much of that was thanks to Johnson’s incredible work at boosting the offense into the top 10. However, he admitted at the owners meetings in Arizona that he didn’t devote enough time to helping the defense, both before and during the season. That is something he is already in the process of rectifying.

Johnson said he spent so much time installing a new offense and teaching the scheme that it drew his attention away from defense and special teams.

“When I watch the self-scout, there’s multiple cut-ups that I’m not proud of,” he said. “I take that personally and (it) makes me feel like I should have done a better job, either coaching the coaches or coaching the players, or spending just a little bit more time making sure that what we were doing was the right thing that particular week.

“And so there’s a lot of that going on. But the time management portion of it, I think I can tweak a little bit and help us out.”

This offseason, he has split his time between offense and defense and has attended nearly every defensive staff meeting, an experience he found “eye-opening.”

Ben Johnson feels he didn’t do enough to help Dennis Allen.

That isn’t an indictment of the Bears’ defensive coordinator. He did a tremendous job under brutal circumstances, mostly a rash of injuries to several starters. The problems lay in the team’s efforts to upgrade the unit last spring and the weekly preparation, which often led to some ugly performances. It’s the head coach’s job to help in both of those areas. Johnson’s admission actually explains a lot about how the 2025 offseason unfolded. It never felt like the Bears were as sharp about acquiring defensive players as they were about acquiring offensive players.

Odeyingbo was a major disappointment even before his Achilles injury. Jarrett played better down the stretch after a knee injury had hobbled him. Turner wasn’t overly productive before tearing his ACL. Hyppolite didn’t accomplish much in his limited opportunities, and Frazier didn’t participate in any team activities at all. Only Wright came through as a great signing with five interceptions and a Pro Bowl nod. That was due more to blind luck and great coaching from Allen and Al Harris than great scouting.

Johnson’s influence may already be in action.

We know for a fact that the head coach had his fingerprints all over the team’s offensive acquisitions last year. Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman, Jonah Jackson, Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, Ozzy Trapilo, and Kyle Monangai were all thanks to his direct collaboration with general manager Ryan Poles. From the way he spoke on Tuesday, it sounds like he’s been far more involved in defensive additions compared to last year, and you can actually see the shift based on the Bears’ work in free agency.

Additions like safety Coby Bryant and linebacker Devin Bush felt far more deliberate and smart compared to last year’s sloppy big swings. Both came at reasonable prices and fit the vision Johnson and Allen want for that defense. This doesn’t even include defensive tackle Neville Gallimore, who is an underrated addition to their rotation. If this is a taste of things to come, it bodes well for the Bears’ plans for the upcoming NFL draft. We all know the team will focus heavily on defense, but it feels like Johnson is putting his sharp mind and attention to detail into that side of the ball far more than he did last year.

Going into the playoffs, it was hard not to feel optimistic about the Chicago Bears‘ future. Colston Loveland was an emerging star. Luther Burden was ascending rapidly. Kyle Monangai had carved out a productive role in the backfield. Yet the most exciting development was Ozzy Trapilo, who’d overcome a slow start in training camp to lock down the left tackle position. Then the wild card game against Green Bay happened. Towards the end of what was one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history, Trapilo was spotted limping off the field. He did not return

News came out later that the rookie had suffered a torn patellar tendon in his left knee. It was a devastating conclusion to an exciting year. The prognosis made it even worse. Expectations are that Trapilo will miss at least most of the 2026 season, and perhaps all of it. That speaks to the extent of the damage. Patellar injuries are some of the worst a player can suffer. However, it might be even worse than we realize. Jeff Hughes of Sports Mockery has reached out to his sources, trying to get information about the former 2nd-round pick’s status.

The responses are not encouraging.

This Ozzy Trapilo update explains a lot.

For one, the Bears haven’t provided a definitive update on his progress. All general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson have said is that it will take time for him to return. Both seem braced for the likelihood he will miss this season. The fact that they still might not know the true extent of the damage suggests the injury was even worse than feared. If that is the case, it might be time to start questioning how much of a future Trapilo has. Severe knee injuries are bad for any position in football, but are especially devastating for players who carry so much weight.

LeCharles Bentley was a Pro Bowl center for the New Orleans Saints in the mid-2000s. Many felt he was destined to become one of the best of that era at his position. Then, late in the 2006 season, he tore his patella. He never set foot on an NFL field again after that. You also had Victor Cruz, a genuine superstar for the New York Giants who’d led the way to a Super Bowl in 2011. Three years later, he tore his patella six games into the season. He only played one more year after that and retired before his 31st birthday.

You cannot downplay the significance of this injury.

The Bears already seem poised to pivot at left tackle.

Poles was spotted at the Alabama and Arizona State pro days last week. Both featured prominent offensive tackle prospects expected to go late in the 1st round. That felt like a glaring signal that the team is very serious about possibly taking a left tackle high in this draft. Initially, the return of Braxton Jones and the signing of Jedrick Wills felt like they were content to go with a temporary stopgap until Ozzy Trapilo could return late in the season or next year. Yet the longer this goes on, the less optimistic the Bears seem to become.

If the prognosis is that bad, then the organization is doing the right thing by changing course. The last thing they should do is sit around and hold out hope that Trapilo somehow fully recovers. That would be irresponsible. Injuries happen in the NFL. It is the nature of the game. We saw what happened with the Bears when they kept waiting for Kevin White to come around. He never did, and it stunted the entire offense’s growth. Johnson has no intention of letting that happen, even though he may like Trapilo. Nothing is promised in this league.

All that most people have talked about for several weeks is the Chicago Bears taking defensive line help in the 1st round of the upcoming draft. All you have to do is follow their free agency moves. They added a starting safety, a starting linebacker, two possible starting left tackles, and a starting center. Three defensive tackles were signed, but all are backups, and no edge rusher was brought in. One would think Bears general manager Ryan Poles has the defensive front circled for that 25th overall pick.

However, from the way he spoke on the Hoge & Jahns podcast, it didn’t sound like someone considering that possibility. Poles has always been candid about the Bears’ projected needs in a draft. He admitted offensive tackle was a focus in 2023, and quarterback was in 2024. Yet when given the opportunity to do the same this year, he steered away from it. Poles stated that he has no plans to force the issue at the defensive line, even though it’s a need. He is focused on taking the best players.

“You look at the draft, when I’ve been here, we’ve taken the right mentality and taken the best available. That’s been very offensive-centric and I think that’s paid off for us. We got an All-Pro tackle (Darnell Wright) and Colston’s going to be All-Pro tight end. So, we’ve done some really good things there. It just hasn’t lined up to be defensive line…..I think the biggest mistake you can make is forcing something just because that’s what you need.”

Ryan Poles doesn’t sound optimistic about his options at #25.

If he were, he would’ve happily discussed the possibility. Instead, he said, without directly stating it, that it is likely the Bears will pick a different position. He’s not entirely wrong in his assessment. In 2023, the Bears opted for Darnell Wright with the 10th overall pick. They famously passed on Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter because of serious character concerns. Their other notable options were Lukas Van Ness, Will McDonald, and Calijah Kancey. It is safe to say they made a good decision.

Last year was the same. They went with Colston Loveland over Mykel Williams, Kenneth Grant, Jalon Walker, and Walter Nolan. It’s early, but that looks like another good decision. The one area where there is room for debate is 2024. Taking Caleb Williams at #1 was a foregone conclusion and the right decision. That said, the #9 pick for Rome Odunze might’ve been Poles’ big missed opportunity.

This is not to say Odunze was a bad pick, but it can be argued that the Bears could’ve landed a defensive line building block at that spot.

Poles might be right about his chances at #25.

Projections are always tricky because it is hard to gauge how other NFL teams evaluate players. Based on information available, most believe around five or six defensive linemen could go in the first 20-24 picks. That will put Ryan Poles in an interesting spot. Would he be content taking what could be the sixth or seventh-best defensive lineman on the board over, say, the third-best offensive tackle or second-best safety? Remember this strategy worked before. Wright was the second offensive lineman off the board. Williams was the first quarterback. Loveland was the first tight end.

Aiming at the less plucked positions is a sound strategy that hasn’t steered them wrong yet. Poles seems determined to stick to that approach next month. If the board falls in a way where a smaller number of defensive linemen are selected, he will feel comfortable going that direction. From the way he’s talking, it doesn’t sound like he’s counting on it. SM was recently informed that the Bears aren’t feeling great about their chances of landing a true difference-maker. That is why they’ve been heavily scouting other positions.