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Bears OTAs Open With 5 Pressure Points That Could Shape the 2026 Season

The Bears enter OTAs with major questions at cornerback, receiver and linebacker as Caleb Williams begins a critical stretch in Ben Johnson's offense.
Gene Chamberlain|
Rome Odunze runs after a catch at practice last season. Odunze and all the receivers will be under watchful eyes at OTAs.
Rome Odunze runs after a catch at practice last season. Odunze and all the receivers will be under watchful eyes at OTAs. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears take the field this week for something more closely resembling actual football, with general improvement the goal but eyes fixed on several spots.

Until this week, OTAs have been only drills and running pass patterns against "air." The exception was the two-day rookie camp, where some plays are run but players really don't know what they're doing yet, and most attending weren't even coming back for another practice.

The Bears will now be able to see Caleb Williams running plays against the defense for the first time as they begin the third phase of offseason work. Of course, this is all without pads and without contact except when it accidentally occurs.

The offseason work of GM Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson — as well as work they didn't actually get done — have combined with several other situations to create a handful of places requiring attention.

“I really expect some of these young players that we already had in the program to take a huge jump from Year 1 to Year 2 of this coaching staff, and then we create a lot of competition really at every position group,” Johnson said.

Less is gained paying attention to line positions because play there is largely muted with no real hitting involved. It's players pushing on each other, using their hands or defensive players trying to go around a blocker.

Here are the top focus points for Bears OTAs as their on-field work begins this week and runs through June 11.

1. All cornerback play

This has gone from an area of strength to one with questions.

Tyrique Stevenson battling fourth-round draft pick Malik Muhammad for a starting spot is no longer stand-alone action.

The reported soft tissue injury to Kyler Gordon and absence of Jaylon Johnson from earlier OTAs makes every snap at all cornerback positions critical. Both Stevenson and Muhammad might actually be on the field together facing the offense because of these absences.

Finding out who can step in with either or both of the veteran starters off the field becomes more important than ever. It means each snap for Cam Lewis, Josh Blackwell, Terell Smith, Jaylon Jones, and, of course, Stevenson and Muhammad, requires close scrutiny.  Seeing which backups are viable is huge, too, because Nahshon Wright and Nick McCloud both are gone from last year’s group.

Cornerback play is one of the few aspects of football without pads normally worth watching, anyway. Now it really is for the Bears as they try to get an idea what players can handle.

Nevertheless, the one player who bears watching above all is Stevenson. It's his contract year and Muhammad's reputation from college is impressive enough to think he could challenge at training camp once all DBs are back.

"You know what I would say this for Riq, the young man that reported last year is so totally different than the young man that's reporting this year," DBs coach Al Harris told reporters at Halas Hall last week. "He's focused in, he's locked in."

This type of thing has been said about Stevenson even before Harris coached for this team in 2024.

2. Hands

All of Williams’ pass catchers are going to be closely watched for gaining separation earlier on routes. It has been something mentioned back into last year as necessary because Williams had to move out of the pocket too often.

Even more important is the simple act of hanging onto the football, particularly when the ball is right there for the taking. Too many dropped passes hurt the Bears last year and made Williams’ job more difficult.

They finished with the NFL’s fourth-worst percentage for passes dropped (5.1%), according to Pro Football Reference/Stathead.

It all goes back to the area Johnson identified for improvement after the Bears’ playoff elimination.

“When I think about being fundamentally sound, we have to do a better job catching the football next year,” Johnson said.

This is definitely something to be watched, especially in non-contact practices. If they’re having trouble holding onto it then, what chance would they have when they could be hit by a DB. Rome Odunze had just two drops in the regular season but a key one against the Rams. Luther Burden actually led returning Bears wideouts in drops with four and was only fourth in targets (60) for last year’s team. He also needs the work. Not all of the players to watch are wide receivers. Running back Kyle Monangai led the team in dropped pass percentage. He dropped one out of every five passes thrown his way.

3. Middle man

Who’s stepping up and taking control on defense is going to be an issue, particuarly early. It’s likely they’ll start out practice with T.J. Edwards watching as he’s coming back from a broken leg suffered in the playoffs.

Is Devin Bush going to take up the title of defensive leader? He was a strongside linebacker in 2024 and weakside linebacker in 2025 for Cleveland and not the middle guy who commands the huddle.

Linebackers coach Richard Smith made it clear the type of player who is needed as middle linebacker and leader.

"Yeah, first of all, you have to have a leader, you have to have someone who can communicate, someone who can direct and the guys up front respect them,” Smith said. “I always call it, and excuse my language, 'You're looking for an abrasive (blank)hole.' If you got that, then those guys up front respect you because you are going to get them right. When you have to move the line, when you have to make a stunt, it's all communicated through them. They have done a nice job of that."

Can Bush be abrasive enough? With the Browns, they had Carson Schwesinger in that role last year, not Bush.

4. Off platform

Some of Caleb Williams’ biggest plays last year were off-platform throws. Just to name a few, there was the pass to Cole Kmet against the Rams, the throw to Rome Odunze on fourth-and-8 against the Packers.

However, coaches throughout last year commented about the need to be better in this area. For the number of times Williams got out of the pocket and number of big plays, there easily could have been far more. Receivers need to work better when Williams is on the move. They can get this down during the offseason at this point.

Whether anyone becomes better at finding open areas in the defense when Williams is moving can be worth watching through OTAs and training camp.

5. Speed

It’s not just how the Bears deploy Johnson’s new weapon, third-round receiver Zavion Thomas and his 4.28-second 40-yard speed.

In fact, it was defensive speed where Poles said they needed to improve at the start of the offseason. They should start to see that speed at work now with Dillon Thieneman, Coby Bryant, and Bush, as key defensive additions because of their speed.

Thieneman pointed out his speed isn’t just from the way he runs but also his ability to process what’s taking place with the offense.

Any way they can play faster and arrive at the ball faster is necessary.

In rookie camp, there were plays where Thieneman’s speed seemed apparent. He mostly was going against players who haven’t been in an NFL practice or game. Now he, Muhammad, rookie linebacker Keyshaun Elliott and the other undrafted rookie free agents will face real NFL speed covering wide receivers, tight ends and backs for the first time and a better gauge of that speed will be apparent.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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