Bears Unlikely To Make EDGE Addition?

At this point, Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times does not expect that to change. Instead, as our Ely Allen recently observed, it seems the Bears will move forward with the same contingent that helped produce the fifth-fewest sacks (35) and the second-worst defensive line pass-rush win rate in 2025.

It is not entirely fair to hang those stats on Montez Sweat, who did his part last season with 10 sacks, 18 quarterback hits, and 27 pressures. However, his supporting cast, a group comprised of Dayo Odeyingbo, Austin Booker, and Shemar Turner, saw their seasons negatively impacted by injury, and even when they were healthy, that trio largely failed to impress outside of some flashes from Booker.

Odeyingo, who is entering the second year of a three-year, $48MM deal, suffered a torn Achilles in Week 9 in his first season as a member of the Bears. Finley says he has returned to full health, while Turner – who tore his ACL just one week before Odeyingbo’s injury – is expected to return at some point during training camp.

As Finley observes, GM Ryan Poles has implied he will only consider making an addition after the Bears have exhausted every other option.

“We’ve got to make sure we know our team,” Poles said on Tuesday. “So, we evaluate on a daily basis and see what we need to do. We can cross that bridge (signing a pass rusher) if we ever need to go across it.”

Finley says that if Poles & Co. believed there was a worthwhile addition to be made, they would have acted by now. So even though notable names like Jadeveon Clowney, Joey Bosa, Von Miller, Leonard Floyd, Haason Reddick, and Kyle Van Noy remain unsigned, it does not appear as if the Bears will be among their suitors.

In addition to their disappointing pass rush statistics, the Bears finished in the bottom-10 in terms of both total defense and scoring defense in ‘25. That was mitigated by the fact that they led the NFL with 33 takeaways, but they may need to be similarly opportunistic in 2026 to make another deep playoff run.

While Chicago is near the bottom of the league in terms of available cap space (just over $8MM), none of the available FAs are going to be overly costly at this point on the calendar.