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Bear Digest

Bears Power Couple Moving on to Indy as Safety Migration Is Complete

The fate of the last of four Bears free agent safeties has been decided, but the situation at the position is anything but completely clear in Chicago.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Bears' power couple, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, will now be the Colts' power couple.
The Bears' power couple, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, will now be the Colts' power couple. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Simone Biles needs to get a new jacket.

The Olympic gold medalist and wife of safety Jonathan Owens infuriated Bears fans on social media by wearing her old Packers jacket on the sidelines at her husband's first Bears game in the 2024 preseason, after he had been a Packers and Texans safety to start his career. Biles quickly had a new Bears jacket by the next game.

Now, she'll need a Colts jacket.

Owens has signed in free agency with Indianapolis, as the saga of the 2025 Bears' free agent safeties is complete. Three of the four are gone, the only returnee being backup Elijah Hicks.

Owens' departure seemed assured when GM Ryan Poles said they were looking to be faster in the secondary. That wasn't Owens' strength.

Owens was a tackler and an extra safety presence they brought in for short yardage or goal line situations. He started five games in 2024 when they had a season-ending  concussion to starter Jaquan Brisker after just 4 1/2 games and when the backup, Hicks, missed five games with ankle injuries.

Cam Lewis' role defined

The Bears' safety situation now includes free agent acquisition Cam Lewis as an extra player in the secondary, although it's clear now he is not intended to be a starter at that position.

"How they think I can fit is playing a little bit of everything like I did in Buffalo,"  Lewis said. "Some safety, some nickel, some dime, special teams as well. So I think my versatility really helps and I think that will help this team as well."

That's a role player Allen likes in his scheme and he's had several players who filled that in the past, including former Bear C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

Either way, that description is a backup role for Lewis, and they'll obviously need a starting caliber safety to take the spot vacated by Jaquan Brisker. He signed with Pittsburgh for one year and $5.5 million.

They would also need to add other safeties simply to complete the roster. They do have Gervarrius Owens on the offseason 90-man roster. He was a practice squad safety last year.

Free agent acquisition Coby Bryant is the only safety starter they have at the moment.

Who they can draft

Ohio State's Caleb Downs is the consensus top safety in the draft and regarded as a top-10 pick. Dillon Thieneman of Oregon is ranked by Pro Football Focus just a few spots down from him on the PFF Big Board in 11th. In a rarity, there are three safeties regarded by draft analysts as worthy of first-round selection as Emmanuel McNeil-Warren from Toledo is ranked by PFF 22nd best draft pick overall.

The number of elite safeties could drop off drastically thereafter, with LSU's A.J. Haulcy receiving the only second-round grade from PFF. He is sixth among safeties on Mel Kiper's ESPN big board. USC's Kamari Ramsey and Arizona's Genesis Smith are also thought of as a Day 2 possibility.

Some analysts have Penn State's Zakee Wheatley with those two in Round 3 but PFF grades him as a fourth-rounder. Another safety who gained traction at the Senior Bowl and combine is TCU's Bud Clark, who is rated seventh best by Kiper. However, safeties often can be found in the middle of the draft. Bryant was a fourth-round pick. Lewis was undrafted and Hicks a seventh-rounder.

If you're taking Poles' desire to get faster in the secondary literally, the Bears could have their eye on someone in a middle round of later. Clark ran a 4.41-second 40 and Kilgore a 4.4. However, Kansas State's VJ Payne was maybe the most surprising of all the safeties at Indianapolis as he ran a 4.40 40, had a 10-foot-7 broad jump and 35-inch vertical leap, and, best of all, was 6-foot-3 1/2 and 206 pounds.  

"I’m an athletic guy," Payne told reporters at the combine. "When I turn on the film, they are going to see some physicality. They are going to see my speed. They are going to see my speed being used to may advantage. Those are things that would for sure pop out to some scouts.”

The Bears are always looking for size and speed for a scheme that emphasizes safeties who are interchangeable.

And earlier this week Poles and other Bears personnel and coaching staff members were at Kansas State for what everyone assumed was an opportunity to see the pro day workout from Sam Hecht, a top center on many big boards.

Could it be their trip to Manhattan, Kansas was to look at more than one player?

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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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