The NFL trade deadline is just under three weeks away on November 4th. Coming into this month, nobody expected the Chicago Bears to be active during it unless they planned to unload some of their more pricey veterans. However, things have changed. Their 0-2 start has transformed into a 3-2 record after three consecutive victories. Suddenly, they look like a team that might have enough to compete for a playoff spot. They have a winnable stretch over the next four games as well. It is one of those situations where another push via trade might be warranted. What nobody can say for sure is whether GM Ryan Poles will do it.

As always, the deadline is driven by who is available and at what price. If other teams are demanding exorbitant fees for certain players, the Bears won’t move. Still, Poles has shown he’s not afraid to be aggressive up to a point. The trick is remembering how he operates. When you look at the moves Poles made at the deadline in the past, one trend sticks out. He tends to target organizations with uncertainty at the top.

2022: Trades for Chase Claypool

• Steelers were in a transition period from GM Kevin Colbert to new GM Omar Khan

2023: Trades for Montez Sweat

• New owner Josh Harris had just bought Washington and most expected he would clean house

Ryan Poles will circle the teams with serious problems up top.

In this case, he might be in luck. By all accounts, the Miami Dolphins are dangling over a precipice. It’s been rumored and speculated for the past month that both GM Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniels could be out if the team doesn’t reverse its fortunes soon. The roster is not in a good way, and several notable names are believed to be potentially available, including pass rushers Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb. Tennessee already fired head coach Brian Callahan. New GM Mike Borgonzi has a roster badly in need of an overhaul. For that, he needs draft picks. Lastly, you have the New York Jets, who could be one-and-done with head coach Aaron Glenn and have mercurial owner Woody Johnson.

This isn’t a case where most of the selling teams are relatively stable at the top. There is a lot of uncertainty in those organizations, which Ryan Poles has often loved taking advantage of. Everything depends on what the asking price will be for any players the Bears might be interested in.

The Chicago Bears are chasing their fourth straight win — yes, you read that right, and it still feels strange to say. A potential four-game winning streak is on the line this Sunday. However, the team got some bad news early Friday when the latest injury report was released. Here’s how it looked:

Friday Injury Report

There are legitimate concerns about Bears running back D’Andre Swift potentially being out, especially after his breakout performance last week against the Washington Commanders. The drop-off in talent behind him is noticeable, as rookie Kyle Monangai and Roschon Johnson have yet to fully earn the coaching staff’s confidence.

On the bright side, Grady Jarrett being listed as questionable is good news for Chicago, and it’ll be interesting to see if Austin Booker or even Travis Homer can return to the field Sunday.

However, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Friday evening that the Bears expect both WR DJ Moore and RB D’Andre Swift to play against the Saints. Having Moore available is huge—his toughness often goes underappreciated—but the news on Swift is even bigger. His presence should make it much easier for Chicago to establish the run game as they look to win their fourth straight.

Sounds Like Ryan Poles Keeps Getting Good News On Trade Market

The narrative against Caleb Williams has been persistent since he arrived in the NFL. Plenty of people have gone out of their way to say he’s overhyped and was never really worthy of being the #1 overall pick, and his rookie season, which was easily the best in franchise history, somehow proved it. Now those arguments are falling apart. Williams is off to a good start in 2025, accounting for just shy of 1300 total yards, 11 touchdowns, two interceptions, and two 4th quarter comebacks.

After a 0-2 start to the season, he has guided the Chicago Bears to three straight victories. What stands out to former player Matt Bowen the most is how he’s doing it. Most would assume Williams is relying on his gifts as a scrambler and improviser, as he has in years past. That isn’t true. Much of his success has come from the pocket lately. What is really encouraging is how the quarterback has already learned to do something usually reserved for the best quarterbacks in the game.

Bowen explained on 670 The Score.

Caleb Williams has learned to use his entire arsenal.

Monday night in Washington was a perfect example. No less than eight different Bears caught a pass in that game. Six of them were targeted at least three times. Caleb Williams didn’t show favoritism to anybody, which is usually not the case with young quarterbacks. You’ll often find that in their early years, there was always one or two guys they leaned on heavily. Matt Ryan was always looking for Roddy White. Andrew Luck was always looking for Reggie Wayne. Patrick Mahomes was looking for Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce.

It is no small thing that Caleb Williams has already learned the value of spreading the ball around. These are things greats like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers became famous for. The value was that it kept defenses on their heels, as they had no way of knowing where the ball was likely to go. Once you force the opponent to defend the entire field, life becomes much easier as a quarterback. For Williams to be embracing this strategy so early in his career is a big deal.

Olin Kreutz knows a thing or two about humble beginnings. As a native of Hawaii, he knew the odds of reaching the NFL were long. Players from that faraway state didn’t often make it to the pros. Kreutz was determined to beat the odds. He worked his tail off for years, suffering through many hard days, and ultimately became a 3rd-round pick. Then he became a six-time Pro Bowler with the Chicago Bears. So if anybody can appreciate who Theo Benedet is, it’s the former center.

Kreutz has a track record of being critical of the offensive line play in Chicago, as one would expect. He doesn’t pull punches when offering his analysis. Your origin story doesn’t matter to him. He was skeptical when the Bears decided to bench Braxton Jones last month in favor of Theo Benedet, a former undrafted free agent with no experience. However, it sounds like his tune has changed. After watching the Canadian blocker in his first start against Washington, Kreutz can see why Ben Johnson and the coaches love him.

Benedet isn’t perfect, but it’s clear as day that nobody works harder or plays harder than him.

Kreutz can already see why the Chicago Bears love him.

Sometimes it’s not about measurables. Benedet has short arms. Conventional wisdom says they should be at least 33 inches long. His are below 32. However, he’s got the size, strength, and athleticism for the position. History says that if a player with shorter arms has good fundamentals, he can function just fine in the NFL. It sounds like Benedet understands that reality. His one persistent problem is the tendency to duck his head when blocking. This is something that can be challenging to correct. The hope is that more playing time and experience will help him work through it.

The benefits are already showing up. He’s a much better run blocker than Jones was, and he does a good job of keeping himself in front of pass rushers. Olin Kreutz thinks these are good things to work with. If things progress as hoped, the Chicago Bears may have one of their best finds on the undrafted market in years.

Marc Trestman is the coaching equivalent of the boogeyman for Chicago Bears fans these days. He’s seen as the architect of the franchise’s downfall from legitimate contender to NFC bottom dweller. In a matter of two seasons, he took a team that was 10-6 to one of the worst in football through roster mismanagement, poor staff-building, and a clear lack of leadership. Nothing summed it up better than his rift with quarterback Jay Cutler, which manifested in the worst possible ways, including one of his assistant coaches leaking derogatory remarks to the press.

A decade later, one would think there aren’t any more Trestman stories to tell. Somehow, that is not the case. Zach Zaidman covered the Bears as a beat writer throughout most of the 2010s before moving over to the Cubs. He was never known for revealing sensitive information, but that didn’t mean he had none. He proved that during a segment on Mully & Haugh for 670 The Score where he told a Trestman story that should’ve be surprising, but somehow still is.

Marc Trestman waved the white flag.

The New England game was bad enough. That apocalyptic night in Green Bay was easily the darkest period of the past 25 years for the Bears. It was confirmation that the high period was over. The old guard was gone. This new version of the team was weak, mentally and physically. Nobody exemplified it more than Marc Trestman. He may have been a solid offensive coach, but he had no charisma to speak of. His ability to command a locker room had been limited to his time in Canada. The CFL is nowhere near the NFL in that regard. If players in this league sense weakness, they won’t respect you. That is precisely what happened with Trestman. Once it was clear to Brandon Marshall, Martellus Bennett, and others that he was a pushover, anarchy followed.

On paper, there isn’t much to say about the Chicago Bears hosting the New Orleans Saints. Both teams feature new head coaches trying to develop young quarterbacks. Ben Johnson has had more success thus far, going 3-2 in his first five games, while Kellen Moore is 1-5; however, the Saints have played better than their record suggests. You could argue there might be some hard feelings from Dennis Allen. New Orleans fired him last year after the team lost seven straight following a 2-0 start. Much of this was due to quarterback Derek Carr and other key players not being healthy.

The truth is the story isn’t about that. It’s about the quarterbacks. Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler have a history. They were teammates at Oklahoma in 2021. Rattler was the starter when the season began, but he was replaced during what looked like a blowout loss to Texas in favor of Williams. The freshman led a comeback victory and never relinquished the starting job. Rattler was forced to transfer elsewhere, ending up at South Carolina. It’s pretty clear that the two don’t have warm feelings for each other.

Rattler is likely still bitter about what happened three years ago. He was projected as a 1st round pick going into that season. He started off pretty well. Then, in the one game he struggles a bit, he loses his job. Meanwhile, Williams wasn’t hiding his dissatisfaction at not being chosen as the starter, feeling he’d outplayed Rattler in practice all summer. He has zero remorse about how things went down.

The Chicago Bears hope to help their quarterback send a message.

Williams isn’t motivated by a personal desire to show up Rattler. He’s more like a racer who left somebody in his dust. His only goal is to win the football game. Still, reminding his former teammate that what happened four years ago was not a robbery but a course of inevitable events probably won’t hurt. Rattler has played well this season, managing to avoid costly mistakes. That said, he’s done it by not attacking down the field much, averaging just 6.0 yards per pass. Unless he’s willing to be more aggressive, it doesn’t feel like he’ll put up many points.

At the same time, a Saints defense that is 25th in points allowed must go against a Chicago Bears offense that has scored at least 21 points in each of their first five games. Williams is playing some of his best football. If New Orleans can’t make him uncomfortable in this game, he’s liable to have a big afternoon.

The Chicago Bears locker room was equivalent to a bombed-out city by the end of 2024. Everything was devastated. Guys were shellshocked and just ready for it all to be over. One can understand after what they’d been through. After a 3-2 start to the season, a disastrous Hail Mary loss in Washington kick-started the worst stretch of Bears football in probably the last 40 years. It had everything: blowout losses to bad teams, blocked field goals, overtime heartbreaks, and egregiously bad coaching decisions. Jaquan Brisker was there for all of it. He saw how bad it was.

Hope was in short supply after the season mercifully ended. Matt Eberflus may have been fired, but that was of little comfort. Players were skeptical that things would change. After all, the same people who hired him were in charge of finding the next guy. After an exhaustive search, they brought in young offensive wizard Ben Johnson. Nobody disputed his intelligence, but could he be a leader? Just a few months later, Brisker’s comments to CHGO about the state of the Bears locker room reflect shock and joy about how different things are.

“It’s definitely different in the locker room,” safety Jaquan Brisker said. “It starts in practice. You can feel it. The energy is different in practice. The way guys are getting closer. The way we meet without the coaches and things like that and then the way we communicate on and off the field, it’s amazing. You can tell things are turning up and guys are believing.”

Is the Bears’ wild 25-24 victory against the Washington Commanders one they don’t win in the past?

“Yeah, possibility, yep,” Brisker said.

Jaquan Brisker can’t just see the change. He can feel it.

What makes this process so telling is how it’s happening. The Bears couldn’t have had a worse start to the season. They coughed up a 17-6 lead against Minnesota in the 4th quarter to lose. Then they were crushed 52-21 in Detroit. Anybody with common sense knew the season was over. They’d seen how this played out with previous Bears teams. Johnson didn’t care. He only increased the pressure on guys. Practices became more intense. Details were covered relentlessly. By the time Dallas came to town, the Bears were ready. That 31-14 thumping of the Cowboys seemed to provide the tiniest of sparks.

Then the team overcame a 24-19 deficit in the final minutes against Las Vegas to steal another win. Finally, in a sweet moment of revenge, they turned the tables on Washington to score another victory against the Commanders. Jaquan Brisker never thought it would be possible. Yet here they are, and it’s largely because of Johnson’s steadfast belief in the players and the process. Belief is growing, and that is a dangerous drug in this sport.