The Chicago Bears arrived in Indianapolis for the 2026 NFL scouting combine and have gotten straight to work. Already, they’ve met with several players in advance of on-field drills starting on Thursday. This tracker will help keep fans informed about who they’ve met with, perhaps offering an idea of which direction the team might be leaning toward early in the draft this April.

Kayden McDonald (DT, Ohio State)

A big, powerful defensive tackle who is known for eating double teams and plugging gaps across the middle. He has more lower-body explosiveness than he gets credit for. Perhaps some untapped pass rush potential.

Jacob Rodriguez (LB, Texas Tech)

He will be knocked for being only 6’1″, but Rodriguez is an electric player with the range to play sideline-to-sideline and an uncanny nose for the football. Has high leadership qualities as well.

Anthony Hill Jr. (LB, Texas)

If Dennis Allen wants a linebacker who can get after the quarterback, Hill is that guy. He had 17 sacks in college, is a great athlete, and plays with a constant attacking mentality.

The Chicago Bears’ pattern is abundantly clear already

Christen Miller (DT, Georgia)

Georgia produces tough, aggressive defensive linemen every year. Miller is no exception. He’s not overly big, but he’s violent, explosive, and much stronger than his frame suggests.

Zion Young (EDGE, Missouri)

Big, burly defensive end with good length and plenty of power. Really improved his polish in 2025, living in the opposing backfield, and carried it over into a dominant Senior Bowl.

Cashius Howell (EDGE, Texas A&M)

Easily one of the most explosive rushers in the class. While he’s on the smaller side for edge players, he is so fast, agile, and flexible that blocking him is like trying to catch a greased pig.

Dontay Corleone (DT, Cincinnati)

The Chicago Bears need better run defense from their front line, especially with Andrew Billings out. Corleone is a squat 6’0″ but 335 lbs, powerful from top to bottom, and has the balance to maintain his feet.

Akheem Mesidor (EDGE, Miami)

Miami’s national championship run doesn’t happen without him. Mesidor is a violent, relentless, and powerful rusher who had 17.5 sacks last season. He turns 25 years old this year.

T.J. Parker (EDGE, Clemson)

A strong defensive end with good length and an understanding of how to use both. His pass rush is solid and he plays the run tough. A bit predictable as a rusher.

Lee Hunter (DT, Texas Tech)

A massive defensive tackle with power for days. Can hold the point of attack against the run and has a nasty bull rush. Much depends on a team’s priorities between the two.

Marcus Allen (CB, North Carolina)

Your classic long and physical corner who gets his hands on the football a lot. However, he has limited speed and isn’t the most fluid player for his position.

Tacario Davis (CB, Washington)

Often compared to Nahshon Wright, which is fair. He’s long, athletic, and fast with a great nose for the ball. Unfortunately, he’s also vulnerable to savvier router runners.

Devin Moore (CB, Florida)

A great athlete with ideal size who performs at his best in press coverage. He triggers downhill well, but has been haunted by injuries over the past three seasons.

Julian Neal (CB, Arkansas)

A stick cornerback who has the size and length to bother wide receivers all day. He’s also a capable tackler in space. Also lacks eye discipline and true deep speed.

Chuck Demmings (CB, Stephen F. Austin State)

There are questions about his overall athleticism and speed overall, but he did have nine interceptions in college, demonstrating a knack for stealing the ball.

Bishop Fitzgerald (S, USC)

Undersized for a safety at 5’10”, that didn’t seem to stop him from racking up 10 interceptions in three seasons. He is your classic robber safety who partrols the back end of a defense.

Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (S, Toledo)

Think about if Charles Tillman played safety. That is McNeil-Warren. He’s tough, physical, and is uniquely gifted at forcing turnovers. Just leave him out of situations where he has to cover speed.

Keonte Scott (CB, Miami)

Highly physical cornerback with good size who isn’t afraid to get dirty along the line of scrimmage. Tough as they come, but questionable ball skills.

Anthony Lucas (EDGE, USC)

He has the size and length you look for in NFL defensive ends, and has the versatility to move inside. Unfortunately, his inconsistency has led to disappointing production.

Cole Payton (QB, North Dakota State)

Legitimate dual-threat QB with dangerous legs and good size. His mechanics are a mess, and the arm strength is average at best. However, he demonstrates good touch at all levels. Needs lots of grooming.

Behren Morton (QB, Texas Tech)

Tough as nails competitor who plays a professional style from the pocket. He has good feet and delivers the ball with accuracy. Has a lengthy injury history and is undersized.

Josh Cuevas (TE, Alabama)

Your classic H-back. He’s too small for a tight end, but he blocks really well and is a credible threat as a receiver that you can move around to create matchups.

Kevin Coleman Jr. (WR, Missouri)

Your classic slot receiver: undersized but quick and fast with good hands. His route-running needs work. He’d be a natural fit in Johnson’s slot-first passing attack.

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles spoke to the media for the first time since the beginning of January on Tuesday. The scouting combine is about to begin and the team has lots of work to do in collecting information, both through watching drills and conducting player interviews. While he covered a wide range of topics from D.J. Moore‘s trade status to Caleb Williams’ progress, the overarching theme stayed the same. Everybody wants to know what he has planned to fix the defense.

The unit finished 29th in the NFL last season. If not for leading the league in takeaways, the criticism would’ve been far worse from fans and media. Poles knows he has to bring that side of the ball up to match the team’s offense. What makes it so challenging is that every position group needs help. The Bears have no starting safeties under contract. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds will likely be cut for cap reasons, and the defensive line needs help across the board. What does Poles have planned?

While he didn’t get into specifics, the Bears GM did say he’s focused on one thing: speed.

Ryan Poles saw his team routinely gashed by faster offenses.

Detroit, Cincinnati, and San Francisco all put 40+ points on them without breaking a sweat. Even the Baltimore Ravens, without Lamar Jackson, hung 30 on them. Christian Watson of the Green Bay Packers gashed them over and over in every matchup between the two teams. It makes sense that Poles would want to add more explosiveness to the defense. There were already signs of it trending in that direction last year when the Bears drafted Ruben Hyppolite in the 4th round. He was one of the fastest linebackers in the draft.

This means the upcoming 40-yard dash at the combine could play a pivotal role in shaping the Bears’ board. They will focus heavily on the players who post great times, no doubt making sure that speed also shows up on tape. Leaning on takeaways can’t be how this team does its business, not if they want to win a championship. However, the plans don’t stop there. Ryan Poles had a noteworthy comment about the structure of the 2026 draft class, teasing what he may have planned for the 1st round.

Poles has a history of leaning into the deeper positions in a draft.

Last year was a perfect example. Running back was considered the second deepest position in the 2025 class. The Bears didn’t draft one until the 7th round, and Kyle Monangai still became a solid contributor as a rookie. If Poles is confident a group is deep, he may wait to pluck from it until later rounds and focus on the thinner groups early. That comment about defensive tackle and edge rusher makes those intentions clear. If you look at the list of top 100 prospects in the 2026 class, there are seven defensive tackles and 13 edge rushers.

So look at it this way. What odds are better? Taking the best edge rusher with the 25th pick and hoping a solid defensive tackle drops to them in the 2nd round, or taking the best defensive tackle immediately and circling back to edge rusher in the 2nd? The latter is the far sounder strategy. Chicago needs both a nose tackle and an interior pass rusher. They are virtually guaranteed to land one of those in the 1st round. Those odds drop considerably after that. While it is impossible to predict how the first 24 picks go, it feels like Poles’ plan is to address the interior first and find that edge rush help later.

The Chicago Bears aren’t surrounded by the same flurry of rumors they’ve been in the past few years, but that doesn’t mean they are completely invisible. Salary cap issues mean they have to make some difficult decisions on what to do next. Among the hottest debates among fans and media is what to do with DJ Moore. There is no doubt that the wide receiver played a pivotal role in the team’s playoff push last season. His catches against Green Bay were iconic. However, he counts $28.5 million against the cap next season, and his production took another dip.

Moore had over 1300 yards in 2023, dropped down to over 900 in 2024, and failed to crack 700 last season. Other offensive players began asserting themselves in the passing game, including rookies Colston Loveland and Luther Burden. The Bears are paying him to play like a star, but the reality is Moore hasn’t been doing that. General manager Ryan Poles was asked about the situation during his opening presser at the scouting combine. He kept his words carefully neutral, insisting the team loves Moore, but left the door open for all possibilities.

“Yeah. I have to have conversations to see what, like I said, the best combination of players we can bring in. We want him here. We think highly of him. He’s a great teammate. He has been productive pretty consistently over the last however many years he’s been here. So I have nothing but great things to say about him. But this is the time now where we have to look at all the different scenarios to see what can allow us to put the best team out there. And I’ve talked about this before. There are relationships there. There’s a lot there that make it really, really difficult. He’s a guy we want here. But we have to look at all the different scenarios.”

DJ Moore is in a complicated spot.

He came up big for the team several times last season. Caleb Williams seems to trust him. Yet his ability to impact games has steadily gone down. Maybe some of it is the new offense under Ben Johnson. Maybe some of it was injuries. Whatever the case, the Bears are left with one reality. They’re paying him more money than Jameson Williams, who had 1,117 yards last season. Smart teams don’t sit around hoping things will improve. More often than not, they make the tough decision to move on.

The Bears aren’t in a bad place. They have plenty of young offensive talent. Loveland, Burden, and Rome Odunze can handle the load in the passing game. DJ Moore is still 29 years old. He can be a playmaker for somebody in need of wide receiver help. It’s merely a question of finding a team that needs one and has the money to handle his contract. Tennessee, Las Vegas, and New England come to mind. Each has or will have young quarterbacks in need of weapons. Moore has experience with that already.

Sometimes tough decisions like this happen.

It is the nature of living in the salary cap era. Sooner or later, you’ll have to unload a player you really like because there is no other option. That is what the Kansas City Chiefs did with Joe Thuney last year. The Bears benefited from that in a huge way. Now they’re on the other side of that coin. Trading DJ Moore isn’t a foregone conclusion, but it sounds like it’s squarely on the table. Poles hasn’t been afraid of the tough decisions in the past. He should be able to find a taker if it comes to that.

As for Moore himself, it seems cruel for him to be in this position. The guy waited his entire career to play meaningful football and finally got the chance last season. Now here the Bears are, knocking on the door of a possible Super Bowl run, and he might be shipped out before getting a chance to experience it. The NFL is a nasty business sometimes.

Former Chicago Bear Rashied Davis joined the Untold Chicago Stories show to share insight about his playing career. Rashied shared stories about playing with Jay Cutler, wiffle ball inside the Bears locker room, his opinion on the DJ Moore playoff controversy, growing up in West LA, and more! His stories capture what it was like to play for the Chicago Bears and deal with adversity while earning his spot in the NFL. Rashied not only shared these stories but also went beyond storytelling, adding emotional insight that fans had never seen before.

From the very beginning, Davis sets the tone for honesty and reflection. Instead of polished soundbites, viewers are treated to a candid conversation about the emotional and mental grind of professional football. He talks about what it felt like walking into Soldier Field, the pressure of fan expectations, and the personal challenges that pushed him to dig deeper — not just for success on the field, but for growth off it.

Whether you lived through the games alongside him or are just discovering his journey, this episode resonates because it feels real. You don’t have to be a die-hard Bears fan to feel the humanity in Davis’s words — what it means to chase a dream, face setbacks, and find your identity both as an athlete and a person.

Some highlights from the video:

• Lance Briggs and other Bears players sneaking out during away games and showing up the next morning
• A game of wiffle ball in the Bears locker room that led to a hospital trip
• The way Lovie Smith expressed emotion without cussing
• His first time using an ATM and opening a bank account
• Gang life and the battle between Crypts and Bloods in the LA projects
• His mother asking him to sign a photo of Bernard Berrian catching a TD over him
• The best football advice he ever received from Mike Martz
• The best football compliment he ever received from Rex Grossman
• What Jay Cutler was like behind the scenes
• Why DJ Moore feels slighted and may be on the move next season
• Responding to our host Colin relentlessly making fun of his crooked finger
• What it was like playing in the Super Bowl
• and more!

The latest episode of Untold Chicago Stories takes fans on a ride from the beginning of Rashied’s playing career, deep into the locker room and life of a Chicago Bears player. You don’t want to miss this episode.

Subscribe to YouTube for more episodes. Our next guest is 3x Pro Bowler Tommie Harris.

Podcast available on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon.

The Chicago Bears don’t have plans to do anything drastic in free agency. They first have to get back under the salary cap, and even then, it will take some work to find spending money. In those situations, teams tend not to do anything overly aggressive. General manager Ryan Poles said at his latest press conference that he’d prefer to avoid kicking the can do the road. This was in reference to the idea of restructuring several contracts. However, sometimes outside circumstances intervene to change your plans.

It isn’t a secret that the Bears are hunting for options at left tackle. Poles confirmed that Ozzy Trapilo’s knee injury isn’t career-threatening, but he may miss the 2026 season. That means they must find somebody reliable who can handle the job for this year. Initial assumptions had them trying to retain Braxton Jones. The coaches like him, and he should be healthy now after a long recovery on Injured Reserve. However, a situation out west might significantly alter their plans.

Apparently, the 49ers and left tackle Trent Williams are at a contract impasse.

The Chicago Bears going after Williams would be justifiable.

If he leaves San Francisco, he instantly becomes one of the best free agents available. People will talk about the fact he turns 38 years old in August. That is fine. It doesn’t change the other fact that he’s still one of the best left tackles in football. He was tied with Penei Sewell as the seventh-highest rated pass protector in the NFL, allowing 40 pressures on a staggering 668 snaps. Oh, and he also had a 92.0 run blocking grade. The man is destined for the Hall of Fame whenever he retires.

Chicago has every reason imaginable to sign him. Think about what a pair he and Joe Thuney could be on the left side of that line. Caleb Williams might never get touched, let alone sacked. It would further open up Ben Johnson’s already dangerous run game. Not to mention, Trapilo would have an outstanding mentor to learn from. He wouldn’t have to rush back from rehab. The Bears could take their time getting that knee right and have their left tackle of the future waiting.

Money will be the challenge in landing Williams.

In his most recent contract, he was making $27.5 million per year. That is a significant investment for a cap-strapped team like the Bears. They would likely need to sign him to at least a two-year deal to soften the cap blow this season. If they do it, that would be the extent of their free agency work. There won’t be anything left but enough money to sign bargain free agents. If done, it would also certainly mean the NFL draft would be almost exclusively devoted to improving Dennis Allen’s defense.

It wouldn’t be a complete all-in move for the Chicago Bears, but it would reduce their financial flexibility going forward. It would be a decision made with the belief that Williams can elevate this team enough to compete for a championship. Remember, they have to find ways to block Micah Parsons and Aidan Hutchinson. In the absence of a long-term option, signing Williams is the obvious play. Coach Johnson’s reputation should also be a significant lure for the superstar blocker, who is chasing a Super Bowl ring.