Bears officially begin work with coach Ben Johnson and staff

One of the few benefits of being so bad last year and getting their coaching staff fired is the Bears can start work on this year earlier than other teams.

On Monday the doors to Halas Hall opened for offseason workouts. The Bears joined the Jets and Patriots in these early starts, while the Raiders and Jaguars were in similar situations and will start theirs on Tuesday.

Dallas and New Orleans also had the option of starting early but will wait until next Monday and the rest of the league on April 21.

The Chicago Bears are BACK baby.

Phase I of the Bears off-season program begins today at Halas Hall., which is focused around strength and conditioning.

This is the first time players and coaches are all together since the end of the '24-'25 season.

LETS GO! 🐻⬇️ pic.twitter.com/r36wegeij7
— Just Another Year Chicago: Bears (@JAYChi_Bears) April 7, 2025

All the Bears are able to do right now is strength and conditioning, along with meetings.

It's the first time they'll be working with a revised strength and conditioning staff that includes head strength and conditioning coach Pierre Ngo and assistants Allison Haley, Noble Landry, Reshard Langford and Marc Philippi.

Between the meetings and work, the Bears will fit in 30 visits and local visits from potential draft picks. Teams have until April 23 to conduct interviews, test or time players in any location, prior to the April 24 draft.

All smiles 😁 pic.twitter.com/UhpZHweonZ
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) April 7, 2025

Bear veterans hold voluntary minicamp April 21-23, and at that time they will be allowed some time on the field to run plays without pads or contact in much the same manner they do during organized team activities and later this spring at mandatory minicamp.

The roster they reported for work with has 71 players on it, which means they have openings for 19 more either through the draft, undrafted free agency or from free agents still out in the market. Any such additions will be limited as Overthecap.com reports they have $4.7 million in effective available cap space.

Western Michigan OL Addison West will be a the Bears local workout . Being that he was s local he does not count as a 30 visit player. Bears can bring in as many local players as they want, as many times as they want and work them out.
Notre Dame is an “assigned” local school for…
— Greg Gabriel (@ggabefootball) April 3, 2025

They'll hold rookie camp after the draft and it will be either the weekend of May 2 or May 9.

The on-field work of OTAs will be in several sessions: May 20-22, 27-30 and June 9-11.

The mandatory minicamp is June 3-5.

Here's how their roster looks at the moment.

2025 Bears Offseason Roster

Cornerbacks

Josh Blackwell

Kyler Gordon

Jaylon Johnson

Nick McCloud

Terrell Smith

Tyrique Stevenson

Shaun Wade

Ameer Speed

Safeties

Jaquan Brisker

Kevin Byard

Alex Cook

Elijah Hicks

Tarvarius Moore

Jonathan Owens

Defensive tackles

Andrew Billings

Gervon Dexter

Chris Williams

Grady Jarrett

Zacch Pickens

Jonathan Ford

Defensive ends

Dayo Odeyingbo

Dominique Robinson

Montez Sweat

Jamree Kromah

Austin Booker

Daniel Hardy

Linebackers

Swayze Bozeman

Tremaine Edmunds

T.J. Edwards

Carl Jones

Kicker

Cairo Santos

Punter

Tory Taylor

Long Snapper

Scott Daly

Offensive Line

T Kiran Amegadjie

G/C Ryan Bates

G/T Teo Benedet

C Drew Dalman

G/C Chris Glaser

G/C Jonah Jackson

T Braxton Jones

C Doug Kramer

G Jordan McFadden

T Joshua Miles

C Ricky Stromberg

G Joe Thuney

T Darnell Wright

G Bill Murray