Bear Digest

2025 Chicago Bears’ top eight fantasy football options, ranked

Alan Goldsher|
Could Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams help you win your fantasy football league?
Could Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams help you win your fantasy football league? | Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Most fantasy football rankings articles published in May come with a caveat:

It’s early.

Well, yeah. Rookie leaguers are teeing it up as we speak, but we regular-season sloggers are waiting. And waiting. And prepping.

We may not be yet compiling our personal cheat sheets, mind you, but we’re not not compiling our personal cheat sheets. And I don’t know about y’all, but when I’m in cheat sheet mode, I need all the advice I can get.

Not that I take much of that advice, mind you. But it’s nice to know it’s there.

This off-season, I find myself in the position of being asked for advice. Granted, the vast majority of the advice-askers just want my take on the Chicago Bears, because, y’know, BEARS ON SI.

So since I’m a benevolent NFL scribe I now offer you a ranked list of the Bears’ top positional players and their potential fantasy impact. (We’re leaving kicker and DST out of the equation. As well we should.) All average draft positions (ADP) are as of May 12, 2025, and all rankings come courtesy of Fantasy Pros.

8) D’Andre Swift, RB

ADP: 72

Positional Ranking: RB26

The Skinny: If you disliked the then-first-year Bear as the unquestioned RB1 in 2024, you’ll hate him as RB1.5 in 2025.

Head coach Ben Johnson had great success utilizing a two-back system during his tenure as Detroit’s OC, so that makes our takeaway as such: Not only has Swift not proven himself to be a useful fantasy option, but he’s going to see the ball even less than he did last season.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: Late-round flyer. If that.

7) Cole Kmet, TE

ADP: 213

Positional Ranking: TE26

The Skinny: Unlike his predecessors on the Bears’ sidelines, Johnson will acknowledge that tight end is a useful offensive position. But also unlike his predecessors on the Bears’ sidelines, Kmet will not positioned as a TE1.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: In 14-man leagues, late-draft dart throw. In 10- or 12-man leagues, avoid.

6) Kyle Monangai, WR

ADP: 212

Positional Ranking: RB68

The Skinny: The fact that a seventh-round rookie even made this list says a whole lot—that whole lot, in this case, being, “D’Andre Swift is on a short leash.” Monangai, a first-year man out of Rutgers, is a straight-up bowling ball, and should see his fair share of red zone touches.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: Must-have handcuff for Swift owners and, generally speaking, worth last-pick consideration.

5) Luther Burden III, WR

ADP: 155

Positional Ranking: WR 57

The Skinny: A WR3 who lines up in the slot for what will likely be a pass-first offense should merit a look, even if he’s a rookie. Quarterback Caleb Williams still needs to tighten up his mind-meld with second-year man Rome Odunze, but Burden has wheels, and should enjoy a goodly number of downfield targets.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: Higher than you might expect. Consider grabbing him during the tail end of the second wave of WRs.

4) Rome Odunze, WR

ADP: 75

Positional Ranking: WR36

The Skinny: Outside of Caleb, Odunze has the potential to make the team’s biggest season-to-season leap. Johnson will utilize him in the same manner he used Jameson Williams up in Detroit—and Jameson, if you’ll recall, topped 1,000 yards last season—offering him enough targets to keep him and his fantasy owners happy.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: His current ADP seems about right, although if he shows out in training camp, a scootch higher wouldn’t be unreasonable.

3) Colston Loveland, TE

ADP: 165

Positional Ranking: TE17

The Skinny: Right now, at least according to fantasy owners, the Michigan rook is on the precipice of being ranked among the top-half of NFL tight ends. It’s probably not a bad idea to take that to heart, because this dude might become Caleb Williams’ BFF by Week 5—and maybe even Brock Bowers Lite by Week 10.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: Slotting him in as the league’s TE10 wouldn’t be unreasonable.

2) D.J. Moore, WR

Current ADP: 38

Positional Ranking: WR20

The Skinny: This season, wide receiver is stacked, so your overriding draft philosophy should/could be to punt the position to until the fourth round. Moore, whose reputation took a bit of a hit last season (not his fault; Jerry Rice himself couldn’t have thrived in a Shane Waldron offense) could slide deep in your draft and be league-winning late-rounder.

Where to Draft Him In 2025: As late as possible. And that shouldn’t be a problem.

1) Caleb Williams, TE

ADP: 140

Positional Ranking: QB13

The Skinny: Williams is one of the top options among the second-tier quarterbacks, and since, as noted, the Bears will be chucking the rock a whole lot, he’ll be a worthy addition to your roster, and could be one of this year’s fantasy darlings. (P.S. - Bears fans can take heart in the fact that Williams’ ADP is two slots above that of Green Bay Packers signal caller Jordan Love. Hah!)

Where to Draft Him In 2025: As early as you feel is logical.

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Alan Goldsher
ALAN GOLDSHER

Alan Goldsher has written about sports for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Apple, Playboy, NFL.com, and NBA.com, and he’s the creator of the Chicago Sports Stuff Substack. He’s the bestselling author of 15 books, and the founder/CEO of Gold Note Records. Alan lives in Chicago, where he writes, makes music, and consumes and creates way too much Bears content. You can visit him at http://www.AlanGoldsher.com and http://x.com/AlanGoldsher.

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