After trading D.J. Moore to the Buffalo Bills, there wasn’t much of a panic from Chicago Bears fans. They felt the team still had two wide receivers as pillars who would lead the team forward. One was Rome Odunze, and the other was Luther Burden. Both had flashed plenty of potential last season in Ben Johnson’s offense. With another offseason to learn it, they are poised to have a big season in 2026. However, that hasn’t stopped lots of pre-draft chatter about the Bears being more involved in the wide receiver position than you would expect.

Sure, the team has some depth concerns, but it doesn’t feel like that would warrant a pick in the first three rounds. Yet from how Bears head coach Ben Johnson spoke at the owners meetings down in Arizona on Monday, it’s pretty clear he isn’t as satisfied with the wide receiver room as fans and media might be.

“I think coaching-wise, we need to do a better job of getting the primary receiver open. I think our route detail has gotta improve. And our ball location. And simply catching the football has gotta improve there.”

Rest assured, Odunze was at the center of those comments. Johnson hasn’t forgotten the receiver’s persistent drop issues from last season. He had five. For context, Puca Nacua also had five, but that was while being targeted 200 times, while Odunze only had 99. It was a problem, and the Bears expect improvement.

“That’s something we’ll talk to him about,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that was a thing for him coming out. I don’t want to speak that into existence. That’s something as an entire offense we’re going to emphasize here in the springtime: getting back to our fundamentals, back to the basics, as simple as that sounds. Catching the football is part of it.”

Rome Odunze is in an uncomfortable position.

The drop issues alone were troubling last year. That is, before you’re reminded that he also suffered a debilitating foot injury that hampered him most of the season. It is an injury he chose not to have surgically repaired this offseason, believing/hoping that the extended rest would give it a chance to heal. If doctors gave him that advice, one can only trust they know what they’re talking about. History shows that foot problems tend to linger in positions like wide receiver, where running and cutting at high speed are crucial.

Then you have the elephant in the room. Yes, Rome Odunze was the 9th overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Yes, he absolutely deserved to be at the time. Nobody questioned it. However, there is one big issue that can’t be glossed over.

Johnson had no say in Odunze being drafted.

The Bears’ new head coach inherited him from a different regime. Now that isn’t always a death sentence. There are many examples of new coaches coming in and embracing established players. That said, we already know this staff isn’t above unloading proven names if they feel it doesn’t fit their vision. Ask Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker.

This season is sink or swim for Odunze.

The Bears are already laying the groundwork for a massive contract extension for Caleb Williams. Their young quarterback proved he was on the right track last season and is their future. The same can’t be said for Rome Odunze. Not yet, anyway. His contract is also reaching that stage where extension talks should be happening. Yet it’s likely they haven’t. The Bears didn’t see enough last year to justify it. Sure, he had a strong start and some pivotal moments in the playoffs.

He also had some lowlights. The injury and that brutal drop against Los Angeles are two such examples. Chicago is operating like they will wait and see until after this season. If Odunze stays healthy and cuts down on the mental mistakes, they won’t have any qualms about opening those extension talks. That said, if it’s more of the same this year, don’t be shocked if the team starts looking for alternatives. This is not the sort of regime that is afraid to move on from established players or high draft picks. Brisker is gone. Tyrique Stevenson was all but benched. Kiran Amegajie is all but gone.

Odunze is not safe, and he’d best recognize that.

We all know how the DJ Moore trade happened. The Chicago Bears flipped him to the Buffalo Bills along with a 5th round pick in exchange for a 2nd round pick. It wasn’t an easy decision. The team wanted to keep him. Unfortunately, the business of football catches up to you eventually. The Bears were caught in a salary cap crunch. They needed a way to create space. Trading Moore secured $16 million. It was basic economics, even if the personal emotions involved made it incredibly difficult.

What we don’t know is the deeper details of how it came about. Usually, situations like this develop quickly once phone calls are placed. However, that isn’t the case here. The story goes much further back than anybody could’ve imagined. Bills general manager Brandon Beane appeared on The Pat McAfee Show to discuss the current state of his team. The Moore trade soon came up, and it was here he dropped a bombshell.

Buffalo had actually called the Bears back at the trade deadline in November, hoping to make a deal then. The Bears declined, unwilling to part with one of their offensive weapons. However, after the season, as the cap issue came to the forefront, Bears GM Ryan Poles called them back to ask whether they were still interested. The rest is history.

The Bears’ decision to turn down the DJ Moore trade isn’t surprising.

Timing is everything. One must remember that the team had won five of their last six games after starting 0-2 before the deadline arrived. They had serious momentum building, and Caleb Williams was a huge reason for that. The last thing the team wanted to do was mess with the formula when they finally had something cooking. Their decision proved 100% correct. Moore became one of their most critical playmakers down the stretch. His overtime touchdown to beat Green Bay and go-ahead score in the playoffs to cap the Bears’ epic comeback would never have happened if they had decided to trade him.

It won’t be remembered in the history books compared to other prominent moments, but the decision to keep DJ Moore a little longer led to one of the best stretches of Bears football fans got to witness. Besides, there is no reason to feel bad about how things worked out. Moore goes to a team where he gets to play with a top-three quarterback under a head coach who knows him. The Bears gained financial flexibility and an extra high draft pick while still retaining a lot of young talent at wide receiver.

Moore’s time in Chicago wasn’t long.

Yet nobody can say it meant nothing. He started by delivering one of the best seasons a Bears wide receiver has ever had in 2023, going for over 1300 yards. Then last year, he had what will arguably go down as the greatest catch in franchise history. Not many people are able to squeeze that much into just three seasons. It’s unlikely he feels bitter about the outcome. He lands in a place that will feature him a lot more than the Bears would’ve under Ben Johnson, who, in turn, gets to continue remaking the offense in his own vision.

This will be one of those win-win trades when it’s all said and done. Here is hoping Moore gets a chance to help Buffalo finally get over the hump to a Super Bowl. He is certainly the best weapon they’ve had in some time. The interesting part is what the Bears will do at wide receiver with him gone. Signing Kalif Raymond was a start, but it wouldn’t be shocking if they look for more help in the draft.

Fans have been trying for weeks to unravel the mystery of which direction the Chicago Bears will go in the 2026 NFL draft. Predicting exact players is almost impossible. That is especially true when the team is selecting at the bottom of the 1st round, where it’s unclear which players may or may not be available. All we can do is speculate on the most likely names that will be involved and who, among them, Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson would prefer.

In these cases, the smart idea isn’t to focus on specific players, but maybe specific positions. Everybody likes to say that the top 30 visits don’t at all determine who a team will draft. While that can be true to an extent, there has been a tell this entire time. Kyle Borgognoni of Fantasy Footballers ran some interesting numbers. He found that if an NFL team meets three or more players at a single position before the draft, the odds of selecting one in the top four rounds drastically increase to 80% or more.

Is the data backed up by recent Chicago Bears history?

I decided to dig into the information, looking across multiple years and all the top 30 visits confirmed before each draft. I then listed the first position targeted in each draft, followed by the number of visits the Bears had. The results were pretty telling.

For the most part, Borgognoni’s theory holds true. In six of the last eight drafts, the Bears targeted a position with their first pick that saw them have three or more visits with key players from it. One exception was 2024, and reports have since revealed the team was dialed in on Caleb Williams pretty much from the moment they secured the #1 overall pick. The other was 2022, and it’s worth mentioning that only 14 names were revealed from that list, so there very well could’ve been two cornerbacks unaccounted for, including Kyler Gordon.

The point is, we have a fairly reliable barometer for which way the Chicago Bears might be leaning going into the draft. So what happens if we apply it to the current list of 30 visits?

Current information is starting to form a picture.

Right now, the names reported to be at the Chicago Bears’ meetings so far are still trickling in. While not all of them will be revealed, we’re seeing certain positions stand out.

• Center – 3
• Defensive tackle – 2
• Edge rusher – 2
• Linebackers – 2

That paints a pretty clear picture. Based on the available data, it looks like the Bears are focused on two areas: the offensive line and the defensive front seven. This makes sense when you start putting the pieces together. Yes, the Bears traded for Garrett Bradbury, but he’s in his 30s and has just one year left on his contract. They signed two a couple of defensive tackles, but no starters. They lost two edge rushers and haven’t made a single addition in free agency. They did sign Devin Bush and Jack Sanborn at linebacker, but there are lingering rumors that they aren’t keen on another year of T.J. Edwards.

Put all of it together, and it’s a strong possibility we will see most, if not all, of those positions addressed in the first four rounds. It is only a matter of what order. Center is unlikely in the 1st round, given the general lack of premier talent. Linebacker is also out since it’s a non-premium position. That leaves defensive tackle and edge rusher as the two favorites to be the pick at #25 overall.

There were plenty of intriguing free agents available on the market this year. While the Chicago Bears didn’t have a ton of spending money, they had enough to make one or two significant additions if they wished. Sure enough, their biggest swing came early when they signed veteran safety Coby Bryant to a four-year deal. That wasn’t the position many expected them to target, but with Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker both being free agents, it did make sense. Bryant was coming off a terrific season in Seattle, where he had four interceptions and helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl. Why him, though? That came down to Dennis Allen.

After spending last season using mostly players acquired during the Matt Eberflus era, it made sense that the new defensive coordinator would want guys who better fit his vision. Bryant’s versatility to play coverage and around the line of scrimmage seemed like an obvious fit. However, it went deeper than that. Head coach Ben Johnson revealed the underlying reason it had to be Bryant specifically.

“It’s something that DA brought up as we’re going over self scout over the last month and a half was (that) the best defenses usually have two or three trained killers,” Johnson said. “It’s that you usually don’t have 11 of them, OK, but you got two or three that are tone setters that can really elevate the play of everyone around them.

“When we watched the tape, we felt like that jumped off when Coby was on the field. He’s a guy that comes out, whether he’s playing quarters, playing the post, playing down in the box, he’s coming down, and if he sees somebody, he’s looking to light them up. There’s certainly some things to his game that we’re going to look to improve. That’s like that with every player. And yet, we feel like he’s got a really solid foundation with his play style that’s going to naturally just percolate with the rest of the guys.”

Dennis Allen isn’t wrong about that.

If you look back through the Bears’ history, you’ll notice that their best defenses did indeed have those three or four trained killers. In the 1980s, it was Gary Fencik, Wilber Marshall, and Dan Hampton. Then, in 2005, it was Mike Brown, Lance Briggs, and Tommie Harris. Lastly was 2018. It wasn’t hard to see that Akiem Hicks, Danny Trevathan, and Adrian Amos were the guys offenses were the most wary of. The current Bears haven’t really had anybody who fits that profile, though Austin Booker might be blossoming into that role.

The bottom line is they needed more of two things. One was speed, and the other was grit. Great defenses have plenty of both. Dennis Allen had those crucial pieces in New Orleans for a good three or four-year period with Cameron Jordan, DeMario Davis, Malcolm Jenkins, and Tyrann Mathieu. Assembling those pieces took time, though. It is hoped the Bears can find another one or two in the upcoming 2026 draft. It’s a strong possibility with four picks in the first three rounds.

You can pinpoint certain players who fit the mold in this draft.

If the defensive line is the way they’re looking, then defensive end Zion Young from Missouri fits the mold. Not only is he big and strong, but he has the motor and nastiness to make life hard for blockers on every snap. At defensive tackle, Christen Miller of Georgia displays the kind of throwback physicality and violence you need in the middle of your defense. Need something similar at linebacker? Jacob Rodriguez of Texas Tech has often been referred to as a heat-seeking missile with knock-back power on his hits.

Most of the time, it’s about the mindset. Some guys just seem to revel in doling out punishment. The trick is finding them and determining if they also have the talent to play in your scheme. It isn’t easy to strike the right balance, which is why building great defenses is so difficult. Dennis Allen at least understands the blueprint and has the Bears focused in the right direction. The question remains whether this front office is capable of landing the talent necessary.