Bear Digest

4 Chicago Bears on the hot seat in 2025

Alan Goldsher|
After a down 2024, will EDGE Montez Sweat rediscover paths to the quarterback in 2025?
After a down 2024, will EDGE Montez Sweat rediscover paths to the quarterback in 2025? | Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

For the Chicago Bears franchise, the 2025 off-season has been a damn good one.

  • You’ve got electric offensive guru Ben Johnson as head coach.
  • You’ve got Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman, and Jonah Jackson anchoring a revamped O-line.
  • You’ve got Grady Jarrett  and Dayo Odeyingo amping up the D-line.
  • You’ve got rookies Colston Loveland and Luther Burden III improving an already-decent pass catching battalion.

But with high-profile, expensive, across-the-field additions come heightened expectations. An Eberflus-ian 5-12 record will be considered a failure of epic proportions. Even a sub-.500 season will garner some side-eyes, and possibly a front office housecleaning.

Thusly, each and every player and coach in the Chicago Bears locker room—and, for that matter, each and every front office maven—is officially on notice. But some are on more notice than others.

Here are four Bears who’d better step it up in ’25.

4) Tyrique Stevenson

What He Didn’t Do Last Year: Act Like an Adult

Until the third-year defensive backfielder becomes an All-Pro lockdown corner, Stevenson will be defined as the dude who all but single-handedly lost the Bears a season-wrecking game.

He apologized, but, well, words not deeds.

What He Needs To Do This Year: Earn His Paycheck

Stevenson has two more years left on his rookie deal, and if he doesn’t produce—and/or if he has any kind of high-profile on-field brain-fart—his second contract won’t have a Chicago Bears logo anywhere to be seen.

And if he blows another game in spectacular fashion, well, suffice it to say that Ben Johnson won’t be as forgiving as Matt Eberflus.

3) Montez Sweat

What He Didn’t Do Last Year: Equal His 2023

Is Montez Sweat a player who, once he signed a fat, long-term deal, took his foot off of the gas? Based on the divide between his first and second seasons in Chicago, you betcha.

Tackles Per Game

  • 2023: 2.00
  • 2024: 1.89
  • Drop: -0.11

Solo Tackles Per Game

  • 2023: 1.13
  • 2024: 1.11
  • Drop: -0.02

Sacks Per Game

  • 2023: 0.67
  • 2023: 0.34
  • Drop: -0.33

Can't argue with numbers.

What He Needs To Do This Year: Find the Wayback Machine

Sweat’s seasonal cap hit for the remainder of his deal—which runs through the 2027 season—is just over $25 million. If his downward slide continues, he might be a cap casualty at some point in the next 24 months.

2) D’Andre Swift

What He Didn’t Do Last Year: Produce

In 2024, Swift rushed for 959 yards, the 15th most of all running backs who started at least 12 games, unacceptable numbers for a lead running back. Granted, he was severely hamstrung by some terrible play calling courtesy of former offensive coordinators Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown, but at no point during the season did he flash RB1 potential.

What He Needs To Do This Year: Produce

If I may, I’ll dip back into my recent bold predictions piece, in which I prognosticated that Swift would be supplanted in the starting lineup: “My favorite to become Chicago’s new lead back isn’t yet on the roster. (Nick Chubb, maybe?) My dark horse is rookie seventh-rounder Kyle Monangai."

A job loss could be a thing now. A roster cut could be a thing later.

1) Caleb Williams

What He Didn’t Do Last Year: Be Jayden Daniels

Listen, Williams had a better-than-solid freshman year. He set an NFL rookie record for most consecutive passes without an interceptions, and a Bears franchise rookie record for most passing yardage. Good stuff.

However, unlike Daniels—the man picked by the Washington Commanders one spot behind him in the 2024 NFL Draft—Williams wasn’t consistently electric, nor was he able to drag his team to the postseason. Granted, like Swift, the lack of a quality offensive scheme hampered his performance, and the O-line’s inability to protect the poor kid (68 sacks, remember) didn’t help matters.

But the tools are there. Williams just needs to use them properly.

What He Needs To Do This Year: Make a Massive Year Two Leap

There’s a new offensive-minded coach. There’s a new offensive line. There’s a new batch of pass catchers. So Williams has no excuses.

Okay, maybe he’ll have a few excuses—he has to learn a new, complex system, the team’s running game is sub-optimal, three of his primary pass catchers are barely out of their teens—but he has enough in his back pocket that if he doesn’t make some noise, the Chicago Bears might just have a serious, serious quarterback problem on their hands.

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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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