Bear Digest

Chicago Bears Free Agency Big Board: Top 5 Targets at Every Position of Need

Who are the best players at every Bears position of need for free agency? It's not always simply a matter of top players at a position, as system fit and cap enter into it.
Gene Chamberlain|
Khalil Mack could be one of the best Bears options at edge rusher with the Maxx Crosby situation settled.
Khalil Mack could be one of the best Bears options at edge rusher with the Maxx Crosby situation settled. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Each year it seems Bears GM Ryan Poles does plenty of heavy lifting before free agency begins.

While this usually represents a time for all NFL teams to set their salary cap in order for the new league year, with Poles it is becoming a time to make trades. He beats the market in free agency and saves money this way.

Last year it was trading for Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson prior to free agency to get a more elite level of talent. This year it was more conventional by trading DJ Moore and a fifth-rounder for a second-round pick and dealing a 2027 fifth-round pick for center Garrett Bradbury and cutting linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.

The Bears are positioned to spend what both Spotrac.com and Overthecap.com say is about $26.5 million at this point but would likely be more after a few restructured contracts.

Here are the five top targets for them at every position of need for them going into the start free agency on Monday. These are not the top five free agents on the market, but the top five fits. You can find a list of top five any any position for a wish list anywhere. In some cases, free agency starts at home.

Edge Defender

1. Trey Hendrickson

2. Khalil Mack

3. Cam Jordan

4. Dre'Mont Jones

5.. Jadeveon Clowney

There are plenty of options after Hendrickson but expecting the Bears to pay premium cap dollars, projected about $26 million by Spotrac.com and $21 million by Pro Football Focus seems unlikely. Still, he rates the best target because of past effective pass rush production and past ties to Dennis Allen's defense. More likely for the Bears would be a veteran hired hand for a year or two at less money. 

A key to what they would look for is  ability to play both the run and the pass. Mack's past in Chicago is a real connector and his run-stopping ability has always been high, along with a willingness to do it. The same is true with Jordan but he has the added asset of playing much of his career in Allen's scheme. Both he and Mack are aging, but still extremely effective and good mentor types for Austin Booker. If PFF projection are right, Jordan would be tough to turn down at around $7.5 million.

A player like Bradley Chubb might be ranked higher by some, but with two years removed from his peak they would need real evidence he is back before committing a bigger amount of cash than they would for other options. Clowney makes this list because he is cheaper, all he does is produce wherever he goes, and he has always been an underrated run defender. He is the hired hand who will get done what the defense needs done and is projected by PFF at just $10 million. Jones is scheme-specific talent. He can play inside or edge the way they had expected of Odeynigbo before his torn Achilles tendon. Another one to watch is Green Bay's Rashan Gary if released. Wouldn't Ben Johnson just love to sign a former Packer and see him come back to burn Matt LaFleur?

Defensive Tackle

1. DJ Reader

2. Sheldon Rankins

3. Logan Hall

4. Javon Hargrave

5. Jonathan Allen

There is scarcity of prime talent at this position in free agency and the Bears are much more likely to look for depth here and bring in top rookie talents. Reader would be a bargain according to projections, though, at less than $8 million for a year and even as low as $4.5 million. He provides real consistency in all aspects of defensive tackle play and this is what is needed up front by the Bears more than anything with Gervon Dexter about as inconsistent as it gets against the run and Grady Jarrett's knee issues seeming to pop up all the time.

Rankins is a scheme fit based on his early years in New Orleans and a strong2025 season in Houston.

Hall is intriguing because he's light for a tackle but can be on the edge, tojust like Odeyingbo was intended to do.

Allen might fight because he would be teamed with his old friend from Washington, Montez Sweat. Hargrave is probably steadier than Allen, who has really tailed off at stopping the run.

Linebacker

1. Leo Chenal

2. D'Marco Jackson

3. Alex Anzalone

4. Demario Davis

5. Bobby Okereke

Chenal hasn't been used enough by the Chiefs. He'd be an ideal attacker as weakside in this Bears scheme and PFF projects his cost as relatively low at $6 million a year for a 25-year-old hitter. Signing their own free agent, Jackson, would be a locker room win and helps because of scheme knowledge. But they could stand to add one more. Anzalone and Davis are throwbacks to Allen's Saints era and with Davis there would be a real age question at 37 and with a projected $8 million a year. Anzalone might work better as a former Allen Saints player and former Lion while Johnson was OC there.  Anzalone is good all around and was above average in PFF grading every year going back to his Saints days. Okereke was a rising terror in Indy and seemed to get lost in New York with a bad Giants team. He'd be a revival candidate as an all-purpose off-ball linebacker.

Safety

1.    Kevin Byard

2.   Jaquan Brisker

3.   Bryan Cook

4. Jalen Thompson

5. Elijah Hicks

Bringing back their own players would be the best option. They know what Dennis Allen wants. Especially with Byard, it would be a shorter deal because of his age, like two years. Brisker showed he wasn't as big of an injury risk last year, although there will always be that lingering possibility of concussions. They should get Hicks back, as well. He was their best backup at the position through his career so far and dependable. They need four safeties and it's a good bet they'll draft one somewhere.

Cook would be more of an option if they can't retain Byard. That's going to cost them, though. For what they ask of safeties, he might be the best player at his position in free agency with a great ability to go from deep to the box.

Thompson is an excellent tackler. If you're going to get one thing from a safety, this must be it because they're the last line of defense. He's not a great safety but has been graded top 35 or better the past three years by PFF and rocks ball carriers while playing solid pass defense.

Tackle

1. Taylor Decker

2. Braxton Jones

3. Cam Robinson

4. Trent Brown

5. Trent Williams

One of the problems the Bears have addressing tackle in free agency is the scarcity of left tackles. They don't need a right tackle. Decker is to be released by the Lions according to reports. He would be a perfect fit but the cash would need to be a fit. This is always a problem at tackle.  It's why their own free agent, Jones, would be a great fit. They're really only looking at tackle for this year because there's every reason to believe Ozzy Trapilo would be back from a patellar tendon injury for 2027, if not late this season. Cam Robinson is a proven left tackle who has been up and down in recent years and bounced around but still has starter talent. He wouldn't destroy their cap situation, although what he'd get is anything but clear. There have been projects from as low as $4.5 million to $13.5 million.

Williams is the premium veteran tackle who may or may not be a free agent. Supposedly, he has reached an impasse in talks with the 49ers, and at age 38 he may be one avoid, anyway. Brown is a veteran who has played both left and right tackle and was a backup the last two years with Cincinnati and Houston but had started at left tackle for the Patriots in 2022 and was on a line with Joe Thuney at left tackle in 2018. An old guy at 33, but experienced and someone who could hold down the position until Trapilo returned.

Wide receiver

1. Rashid Shaheed

2. Kalif Raymond

3. Tim Patrick

4. Tyreek Hill

5. Devin Duvernay

This might look like a strange collection and order from the free agent receivers available but for the Bears the need after trading DJ Moore is not so much pure talent but specific skill sets for their attack. The best way to approach their receiver need is the draft, anyway. Shaheed rates best because the Bears lack that 4.3 or lower speed and Johnson had this with Jameson Williams in Detroit. Raw speed is a desired trait for their group but they are not a slow group. A player with Shaheed's raw speed and return ability would be ideal but his projected cost, at $14 million a year, might be more than they're looking to spend for a target who wouldn't figure to get more balls than those already on the roster. Raymond rates No. 2 as a role player for the offense he already knows from Detroit and as a quick return man. Patrick is a receiver who played in Johnson's offense and is an excellent blocker. No block, no rock, as Johnson has said. Hill makes the list for pure speed and he still has it, but that's likely to keep him beyond the Bears' reach. Plus there is his off-field history to consider. Duvernay is a good player to return for the Bears as their return man, should they not sign someone faster who returns the ball well.

Running back

1. Travis Etienne 

2. Kenneth Walker III

3. Kenneth Gainwell

4. Rachaad White

5. J.K. Dobbins

Their real need is another draft pick at this position who has great speed, a future Jahmyr Gibbs type if possible. If it's a back with speed and power both, even better. That would need to be early in the draft, though. Their top two for the season are set, as Ryan Poles made it clear at the combine that D'Andre Swift is going to be around for his last year on the contract. Kyle Monangai is the power threat. Etienne or Walker would only be signing options if Poles and Johnson had a sudden reversal heart and dumped Swift. They both cost too much to pick up on a backfield-sharing situation with a veteran and a younger back.

Gainwell and White would be interesting acquisitions because of their pass-catching abilities. Both can run, as well. But the Bears signed Travis Homer in 2023 as a possible third-down type and never got this from him. Dobbins was someone they studied last year and there is plenty to like when he's healthy, but he often is not.

Other

Any other positions they would sign in free agency would be contingent upon losing a player, such as losing backup QB Tyson Bagent in a trade. Also, the other spots would be only lower-level free agents for special teams/depth. In those cases, they'd usually defer to their own free agents. An example is their own restricted free agent linebacker Daniel Hardy.

A popular idea that they traded for Garrett Bradbury but intend to sign a free agent center ahead of him is like thinking you're going to win the lottery. It's absurd. They'll draft someone or train Luke Newman to play there.

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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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