Chicago Bears castoff emerging in a role to return and haunt them

In fact, the Dallas Morning Star's Calvin Watkins calls Sanborn a favorite not only to start but to be starting at middle linebacker ahead of Kenneth Murray rather than play the part-time starter role of strongside linebacker like he had in Chicago under Eberflus in his final two years.

"Sanborn, the free agent pickup, seems the favorite," Watkins wrote. "Murray, acquired in a trade, might surprise in training cam to make this a close race."

Sanborn was a fan favorite as a downhill, hard-hitting linebacker who overachieved as an undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin, much like current Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards.

He played middle for the Bears after Roquan Smith was traded in 2022 and middle linebacker Nick Morrow moved to what had been Smith's weakside linebacker spot.

The Bears' need for speed in a scheme relying more on man-to-man pass coverage and blitzing than Eberflus' was their reasoning for drafting Maryland rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II, who ran 4.39 seconds in a pro day 40-yard dash.

Sanborn had 19 starts in 48 games played for the Bears and made 164 tackles, an interception and five pass breakups.

One of Sanborn's replacement's has emerged as a Bears replacement to take the strongside spot.

"Obviously Noah Sewell's been in the building, and he's shown a lot of good things over the last few weeks," coach Ben Johnson said, after calling it a wide-open battle.

Sewell got on the field for 22 games in two seasons with Sanborn still on the Bears roster. He was on the field for 32 defensive plays and has 13 career tackles in two seasons.

It's never easy replacing a popular former player and this is the challenge either Sewell or players like Amen Ogbongbemiga, Hyppolite or even linebacker experiment Daniel Hardy must take on this camp. Hardy lined up with linebackers during the first week of OTAs after he had been a defensive end all last season.