Bears stock watch—where Caleb Williams and Chicago’s playmakers stand pre-NFL Draft and free agency

If Jayden Daniels wasn’t a thing, we’d all be saying that Williams had an epic freshman year. He broke the Bears' rookie record for passing yardage, and he shattered the NFL’s rookie record for most consecutive pass attempts without an interception. No Daniels means that those two stats—along with, say, four or five more wins out of the Bears—would’ve had the former Heisman Trophy winner smack dab in the Rookie of the Year conversation.

Fortunately for Williams, come year two—in addition to having a season of NFL experience under his belt—he’ll be running a playbook designed by one of the league’s slickest offensive minds in Johnson, a playbook that will almost definitely play to his strengths.

After the 2024 Draft, it was said that Williams was sliding into one of the best situations a quarterback taken at the one-spot has ever seen, which turned out to be a wildly hyperbolic take. Heading into 2025, we’ll go with cautious optimism.

TRENDING: ⬆️ ⬆️

D’Andre Swift: RB

In his first year in Chicago, the University of Georgia product was inconsistent and inefficient, rushing for 959 yards on a career-high 253 attempts for a career-worst average of 3.8 yards per carry and a career-worst success rate of 43.9%.

Not exactly a home run free agent signing for GM Ryan Poles.

Numerous mock drafters have the Bears grabbing Boise State stud Ashton Jeanty in round one, while others have them taking an Omarion Hampton or a Kaleb Johnson on day two. If Swift had demonstrated he possessed the chops to be a Super Bowl back, nobody would be having that conversation.

TRENDING: ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

D.J. Moore: WR

This is a chicken/egg thing: Did D.J. Moore have a meh year because Chicago’s play calling stunk, or did Chicago’s play calling smell lousy because D.J. Moore had a meh year?

The answer is probably (A), because the numbers tell us that Moore’s year wasn’t as quite meh as one might have thought.

Moore saw more targets and caught more balls in 2024 than he did the previous season—plus-four and plus-two, respectively—but his yardage plummeted from 1,364 in 2023 to 966 in ’24. This all tells us that Chicago’s offensive coordinators had no trust in Williams to throw downfield.

We won’t see that kind of conservatism in a Ben Johnson regime, whose 2024 Detroit Lions offense led the league in pass yards after catch (2,699) by a wide margin (Tampa Bay was second with 2,447).

In a Johnson offense, Moore will eat…both chicken and eggs.

TRENDING: ⬆️ ⬆️ ⬆️

Rome Odunze: WR

The ex-Washington Huskies' rookie year was a disappointment in comparison to the league’s top first-year pass catchers, Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., Brock Bowers, and Ladd McConkey. But taken in a vacuum, Odunze’s 734 yards and 13.6 yards per catch digits were legit. (For what it’s worth, he was just 151 yards behind theoretically generational fellow rookie Marvin Harrison Jr.)

Barring a surprise return by free agent Keenan Allen or a shocking trade, or a curveball day-two draft pick, Oduzne will be firmly entrenched as the Bears WR2—and last season under Johnson, Detroit’s WR2 Jamieson Williams racked up 1,001 yards in 15 games.

Odunze’s licking his chops. And so are we.

TRENDING: ⬆️

Cole Kmet: TE

Last season, the Illinois native had a couple of things going against him:

• His $9.9 million salary raised expectations, probably unfairly.

• His offensive coordinators pretty much forgot that tight ends are allowed to catch stuff.

Kmet’s contract, which runs through 2027, will see him taking in just under $20 million; if he’s cut, we're looking at over $3 million of dead cap space, making that a likely non-starter. That said, some pundits have him cited as a trade candidate, and where there’s smoke, there’s a more affordable and/or more productive option at tight end.

TRENDING: ⬇️ ⬇️