Bears Defensive Starter Dubbed Top 'Trade Asset' Ahead of NFL Draft

With the 2025 draft just five weeks away, Pro Football Focus' Bradley Locker evaluated each team's most valuable — and plausible — trade assets and flagged interior defensive lineman Andrew Billings as the Bears' top option.

"Billings played only 297 snaps last season while battling a torn pec, but he was still productive in that stretch, producing a 78.6 PFF pass-rushing grade," Locker wrote. "Gervon Dexter Sr. is returning, Jarrett will presumably start and Chicago might draft another player inside, which means the 30-year-old Billings — in a contract year — could be an asset."

Billings signed a one-year contract with the Bears in 2023 free agency, but he quickly impressed the team as a run-stuffer and earned a two-year, $8 million extension just eight months later that tied him to the team through 2025.

In 2024, however, Billings played just eight games before suffering a season-ending pectoral injury that forced the Bears' defensive interior to depend more heavily on Dexter, Chris Williams and since-released veteran DeMarcus Walker.

Now, Billings — who turned 30 earlier this month — is looking to bounce back from a major injury and facing stiffer competition to make the Bears' roster.

While the Bears might want to give Billings a chance to earn his keep in training camp, they could also shop him around on the trade market if they have their eyes on some of the top defensive tackle prospects in the 2025 draft class.

The 30-year-old Billings would likely not fetch better than a late-round draft choice, but the Bears may feel that is an adequate return with just one fifth-round pick and two seventh-rounders in their pocket for Day 3 of the draft.

The Bears would clear $2.32 million in cap space if they cut or traded Billings, who would then leave behind $1 million in dead cap, according to Over the Cap.