The Chicago Bears have made what could be considered as only one notable splash in free agency. That was when they signed productive safety Coby Bryant, fresh off a Super Bowl victory in Seattle. They also signed linebacker Devin Bush to a nice deal, but nothing close to the top of the market. Outside of that, all of their moves have been on the bargain market, shoring up depth and adding competition. Lots of Bears fans are unhappy about it, feeling the team hasn’t gotten any better from what it was last season. Some even think they’ve regressed. Blame Ben Johnson for that.

At least that is what Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune stated on 104.3 The Score. This approach isn’t an accident brought about by bad luck. It is a deliberate choice.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles has long said his intention was to be selective in free agency and build through the draft. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do that during those first three years because the coaching staff under Matt Eberflus wasn’t up to the task of properly developing players. Johnson’s arrival has changed things, and it showed last season with Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, and Kyle Monangai all having outstanding rookie years.

This approach by Ben Johnson shouldn’t be surprising.

You must remember where the man comes from. He rose to prominence in Detroit, where the Lions under general manager Brad Holmes never made free agency a priority. They often signed role players or backups to shore up team depth and focused on the draft. It has certainly worked in their favor. Since 2021, the Lions have drafted six Pro Bowl players, helping the team deliver its first four-year stretch of winning seasons since 1969 to 1972. That is the biggest selling point of drafting and developing. If you do it right, you tend to have sustained success.

Ben Johnson has already seen the blueprint work and believes in his and his staff’s abilities to coach up young players. Last year was a proof-of-concept. Now they just have to stick to the plan. The problem is, Bears fans don’t like it. They take the lack of splashy moves as a sign that the Bears are being cheap or already waving the white flag on 2026. It couldn’t be further from the truth. It is Johnson’s message that he is committed to a specific vision, one that involves making this team a sustained contender.

To do that, you must first break bad habits. A big one is their reliance on free agency.

The Bears could have a lot of bodies coming in soon.

As of the writing of this article, the team has 54 players under contract on the roster, including all their new additions. That means there are still 36 open slots on the roster left to fill before training camp this summer. Currently, the Bears have seven draft picks. The math is telling a clear story here. It seems the team may plan to expand that selection inventory either before or during the draft, something the Poles have done many times in the past. It also means they might be more active on the undrafted free agent market. They only signed 12 last year. That number could approach 18-20 this year.

Ben Johnson is intent on making this roster younger and faster. The process is already well underway. Such a task isn’t done through free agency. Sure, the Bears will add more depth on the veteran market in the coming weeks, but that is no longer their focus. Every indication is that they are looking towards the draft. The salary cap says. Their actions say it. Johnson is content with this strategy and seems to be encouraging it.

The Baltimore Ravens won the Maxx Crosby race when they traded two 1st round picks to the Las Vegas Raiders for the star pass rusher. Then they got cold feet, saw a better bargain with Trey Hendrickson, and rescinded the trade through a phantom failed physical. Crosby returned to the Raiders and has since stated he’s committed to moving forward with the team, which has made it clear it no longer intends to trade the defensive end. Most believe that the issue is over. Others believe it is only because the market has dried up.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Network hinted as much during his recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show. This doesn’t feel like an issue that is over yet.

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles was asked about the Crosby situation. Normally, when something is considered truly in the past, the GM doesn’t mind sharing a few details. In this instance, Poles was unusually tight-lipped. He confirmed that the Bears monitored the situation, spoke to the Raiders, and discussed what a possible deal could look like. Then Poles quickly moved on to other questions.

Rest assured, the Maxx Crosby pursuit is not over.

SM reached out to people close to the situation inside Halas Hall for clarity on what is happening. The team has remained strangely quiet at edge rusher, having spent their free agency dollars at every other defensive position. The response was crystal clear. The Bears have not given up their pursuit of Crosby. They still believe the star is available. Las Vegas’ sudden reversal of stance has nothing to do with a change of heart and more to do with them no longer receiving offers close to what the Ravens gave.

The truth is Crosby’s return actually hampers the team’s original rebuilding plans. They’d expected to trade him for those picks and a large infusion of cap space to help jumpstart things. Now they have neither. While the Raiders still have cap space to work with, it’s far less than before with Crosby’s $35 million hit back on the books. They also no longer have those picks, which would’ve been incredibly valuable in helping build a new roster foundation. The irony is that this return may have actually hampered their rebuilding efforts more than helped.

That is another reason the Bears and other teams believe the door is far from closed.

The Bears do not feel pressured to get a deal done.

They are content to stay in contact and wait it out, feeling they have some leverage over the Raiders. For one, the market of teams has dropped considerably. Baltimore pivoted to Hendrickson. Dallas traded for Rashan Gary. Carolina signed Jaelan Phillips. Buffalo signed Bradley Chubb. Philadelphia felt like the only legitimate contender left, and even they signed Arnold Ebiketie on Thursday. It feels like Chicago is in the driver’s seat and no longer feels compelled to up their offer to those two 1st rounders, which many felt was too expensive to begin with.

Then there is the other factor.

Those same people in the building stated that Poles and the coaching staff are very high on the incoming 2026 draft class of edge rushers. They feel some really good players will be available to the Bears with that 25th overall pick, as well as the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Odds are favorable that they should be able to find at least one good pass rusher in that range, maybe even two. If Las Vegas isn’t willing to lower its asking price, Chicago doesn’t feel hard-pressed to cave because it has the draft to fall back on.

Don’t be surprised if there is a Maxx Crosby resolution next month.

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles isn’t afraid to take calculated swings on former 1st round picks from Alabama. He proved that in 2022 when he picked up Alex Leatherwood off waivers from the Raiders. It didn’t work out, but the idea was sound. Four years later, Poles decided to try again. This time, the Bears signed former 10th overall pick Jedrick Wills, formerly of the Cleveland Browns. Many had compared the 26-year-old to Jason Peters with his incredible mixture of size and athleticism. However, after a solid start to his career, he was derailed by a knee injury that knocked him out for most of 2024 and 2025.

Most will take that to mean he’s damaged goods. One doesn’t miss almost two full seasons without a knee ever being the same. As it turns out, Wills’ injury was rather unique. Unlike most knee injuries, his didn’t involve significant ligament damage. He suffered something called Varus/Valgus. In other words, his knee was knocked out of alignment. That meant he required something called an osteotomy, cutting bone to realign the joints and get everything back in place.

“I injured a couple of ligaments, but usually when people … they get fell on or something in their knee, they mess up all their ligaments and people can just go in and repair it and they get healthy. I had minimal damage to my ligaments. It was more of an alignment issue from where I got fell on. So … wasn’t my knee. They had to go into my femur and do what was called an osteotomy to kind of correct my alignment. So my knee is healthy. It was a matter of just letting that heal and letting my knee get healthy. So it took a little bit longer than just the regular injury, but it’s doing better now.”

This update is potentially great news for Jedrick Wills and the Bears.

The key part of that explanation is that the ligaments took minimal damage. Often, the fastest way for athletes to lose a step is significant damage to the ACL, PCL, meniscus, or other parts of the knee. In this case, it was more of a bone issue. Such injuries tend to heal with no long-term concerns. However, the recovery time is long. It can take a year for the knee to regain full function. That is why Wills opted to take 2025 off. He wanted to make sure there were no setbacks before continuing his career.

This is not a normal injury. Pro players don’t usually suffer it. The good news is that those who have done so didn’t show any debilitating effects upon returning. Jaelan Phillips endured that type of knee injury in 2024. He returned last season and finished with 73 quarterback pressures. Aidan Hutchinson had one that same year. He finished with 14.5 sacks for the Detroit Lions. That leads you to believe Jedrick Wills should be the healthiest he’s been in years. He has a chance to start fresh under a coaching staff well-equipped to bring out his best.

Wills wouldn’t be the first tackle to overcome a brutal injury.

Injuries almost derailed Jackie Slater in the early 1980s, after he didn’t start until his fourth season. He still managed to carve out a Hall of Fame career. Anthony Munoz underwent three major knee surgeries before even reaching the NFL. Marc Colombo, the Bears’ 1st round pick in 2002, was beset by injuries across his three seasons with the team. He went to Dallas, stayed healthy, and helped them make the playoffs three times in four years. It all comes down to how resilient a player is.

We’re about to find out what Jedrick Wills is made of. He went through a grueling recovery process. Some players would’ve chosen to walk away. We just saw Drew Dalman retire at age 27, only a year older than Wills. Yet the tackle wishes to return. That speaks to a love of football and a competitive desire to prove to everybody he can still be the player everyone expected him to become in Cleveland. The Bears are prepared to give him that opportunity.

The Chicago Bears have made their intentions for the upcoming NFL draft pretty clear through their moves in free agency. They secured a starting safety, a starting linebacker, a starting center, and two options at left tackle. Both of their defensive tackle additions are backups, and they haven’t signed an edge rusher at all. It isn’t hard to read between the lines that Bears general manager Ryan Poles and the coaching staff plan to attack the defensive line early in the draft next month, most likely in the 1st round.

Expectations were that they might have a strong selection of both positions when they go on the clock at #25. However, new updates from the draft community have created some confusion. Peter Woods, the Clemson standout who many see as the best defensive tackle in the class, hurt his hamstring at his Pro Day. As a result, he didn’t run the 40-yard dash and had a middling overall performance.

It doesn’t stop there. Florida’s Caleb Banks had been having arguably the best pre-draft process of any defensive tackle in the class. He dominated at the Senior Bowl and had a strong showing at the combine. Unfortunately, it appears he broke his foot in the process, resulting in surgery. This is the second such foot injury he has suffered in the past year.

The Chicago Bears’ thoughts on both players might be shifting.

Woods was already a question mark. People acknowledge that he is a terrific athlete for his size with tons of upside. However, his production in college was middling, and he failed to put on a decent pre-draft showing. Evaluators are split on him. While there is no doubt he could morph into a serious force, the risks appear to outweigh the rewards. The same goes for Banks. He has everything: size, length, power, and, surprisingly, quickness. He also appears to be fragile in his lower body, which is a major red flag for men over 330 lbs.

If the Chicago Bears were considering either player at #25 before, those odds have just gone down. Poles is a stickler for medicals in draft evaluations, having never spent a top draft choice on players with checkered histories. With Woods and Banks now facing questions, he is far more likely to pivot to players at other positions. Edge rusher is the obvious one to watch, while safety and linebacker could also be possibilities. As important as defensive tackle is, they can’t afford to be wrong picking so late in the 1st round.

Things were already drifting that way.

You can see it from the Chicago Bears’ approach to free agency. They added two defensive tackles, Neville Gallimore and Kentavius Street, but no edge rushers. SM was informed that the team brass is very high on the incoming edge class. All of this information points to an obvious conclusion. The team plans to take an edge rusher with that 25th overall pick, barring something unexpected. Most experts agree there should be a small cluster of good players available at that position when the Bears pick.

There is still a good chance Woods and Banks become good players in the NFL. They have loads of talent. It is about risk calculation. Both underachieved in 2025. Both have health issues following them. The Bears can’t afford to roll the dice on such players right when it looks like they’re turning a corner as a franchise. You may call it being too cautious. They call it being sensible. This team isn’t afraid to take chances, but neither player has the background to justify it here.

The Chicago Bears re-signed several of their in-house free agents over the past couple of days. Once the new league year began on Wednesday, the team sent out announcements for all of them. Each was congratulated for returning in a Twitter (X) post. That included special teams aces Daniel Hardy and Elijah Hicks, linebacker D’Marco Jackson, guard Jordan McFadden, and quarterback Case Keenum. However, there was one glaring omission from that group: Braxton Jones.

Reports indicated the Bears had re-signed the left tackle to a 1-year deal worth up to $10 million. Nothing seemed overly complicated about it. Jones gets another chance to start and maybe rebuild his value for free agency in 2027, while Chicago gets somebody they know who has starting experience. So why no announcement of his return? Maybe it’s just a logistical issue, but after watching what just happened with Trey Hendrickson and Maxx Crosby in Baltimore, it could signal something is going on.

Are the Bears eyeing an alternative to Braxton Jones?

The free-agent market has been active for days, but one position hasn’t seen as much action as many expected. That is left tackle. Rasheed Walker, widely considered the best option before things kicked off, remains unsigned. So does veteran Cam Robinson. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Taylor Decker. The former Pro Bowler was recently released by Detroit over a contract dispute. There hasn’t been a peep from his camp since it happened. Such a deadlock feels surprising for a position of that importance.

It leads one to wonder whether the Bears sense that prices might be dropping. Suddenly, their chances of landing Decker, which seemed hopeless because of his project contract, might now be realistic. While Braxton Jones is a decent player, Decker would be a superior option, even in his 30s. He is also somebody with direct ties to head coach Ben Johnson. If anybody might be willing to back off the Jones contract in favor of pursuing a better option, it would be him.

Ben Johnson is the one steering this ship.

It’s well known that he is a stickler when it comes to the left tackle position. He conducted a long competition in training camp last year, and never actually declared a winner. The competition carried into the season. Braxton Jones held it initially, but struggles led to him getting benched in favor of Theo Benedet. He, in turn, was benched for Ozzy Trapilo, who played well up until his patella injury in the playoff win over Green Bay. Bringing back Jones probably wasn’t his first choice, but Johnson is smart enough to know that sometimes the market doesn’t develop as hoped.

Maybe something has changed in the past day or two. The longer this odd silence on the Jones signing continues, the more intriguing it becomes. Free agency is a market of timelines. The longer this goes with no movement among the left tackles, the lower the prices drop. Sometimes the league is strange that way. If the Bears think they can snag Decker for a team-friendly deal, it is a smart decision, even if it cruelly undercuts Jones at the same time.

The Chicago Bears were certainly active on the free agent market over the past few days. They added two strong starters to their defense with safety Coby Bryant and linebacker Devin Bush. Neville Gallimore also shores up their defensive tackle spot. However, fans are up in arms over the one position general manager Ryan Poles hasn’t made a single addition to: edge rusher. It was viewed as a primary weakness when the team opened the offseason, and rather than do something, they’ve watched other teams take massive swings.

• Carolina signed Jaelen Phillips to a four-year, $120 million deal
• Baltimore signed Trey Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million deal
• Washington signed Odafe Oweh to a four-year, $100 million deal
• Cincinnati signed Boye Mafe to a three-year, $60 million deal
• Buffalo signed Bradley Chubb to a three-year, $43.5 million

Some of these teams were not expected to be big spenders this offseason, but took the swings anyway. All the while, Poles has remained silent. Cries of anger have grown louder the longer it’s gone on, leading some to believe the Bears are destined for a complete collapse this season. Yet history shows such moves don’t yield the results people hope for. Free agents who sign top-of-the-market deals rarely meet expectations, and looking back to 2010, none of them have led their teams to a championship.

Ryan Poles understands this race is won through the draft.

If you look back at the most recent Super Bowl champions, most of them had a homegrown talent leading the team in sacks. Byron Murphy in Seattle, Josh Sweat in Philadelphia, Chris Jones in Kansas City, and Aaron Donald in Los Angeles. The last one to break that streak was Jason Pierre-Paul with the Buccaneers in 2020. While big signings may lead to big stats, they don’t move the needle nearly as much as fans want to believe.

Before you, the same is mostly true on the trade front as well. Over the same time span, there have been six blockbuster-caliber deals for a pass rusher. Only one resulted in a championship.

Big splash moves are fun. They create buzz and do make teams better. Yet the results are the results. Few achieved their intended results of pushing a team towards a championship. That is why it is smarter for teams to keep their money and draft picks and remain focused on building from within. There is no harm in exploring outside options, but always with mindful resource management. Just like Ryan Poles has done.

The Bears are willing to gamble on the draft.

Are there risks? Of course. There is no telling how good players will be once they get to the NFL. Paying for veterans is often a more sure thing, but everything comes with a cost. Ryan Poles knows that if he can hit on one or two defensive linemen in this draft, he’ll have them under control for four years at dirt-cheap prices. Constantly trying to subsist on veterans is never a strategy that works for long. The Bears have seen this reality more than a few times over the past two decades.

It isn’t a coincidence that the only Super Bowl they won in 1985 was on the backs of a defensive line almost entirely built through the draft. Dan Hampton, William Perry, and Richard Dent were all draft choices. Sadly, that strategy hasn’t been working for a long time. The Bears have selected only 1 1st-round defensive lineman in the past 12 years, and that wasn’t even a true lineman, since Leonard Floyd was more of an outside linebacker. Poles has to rectify this, and seems intent on doing so.