Ranking Second-Year Players Who Could Play Pivotal Roles For The Bears In 2026

Well done, Ryan Poles. You/Ben Johnson nailed that one.

The 2025 NFL Draft was a slam dunk for the Bears, who might have gotten more value out of their rookie class than any team in the league last seaosn. And it wasn’t just about first-round pick Colston Loveland, who might well have been the best player in that class this season (even if he won’t win Rookie of the Year).

Now, with the Bears turning the page to next season, the development of this class will take center stage as Chicago looks to improve on its NFC Divisional Round appearance this year and set itself up for long-term success.

Here’s a ranking of the five most important non-Loveland rising second-year Bears going forward. (Why talk about Loveland when we already know he's him?)

Luke Newman

With Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman, and Jonah Jackson firmly entrenched on the offensive line’s interior, I don’t anticipate Newman having much of an immediate role next year. But you know fickle health can be in this league, as Newman himself discovered after going on IR for a stint late in November. It’s not guaranteed that those three will be healthy enough to limit Newman to just 25 snaps again all of next season.

The sixth-round pick’s 25 snaps as a rookie earned him a respectable 66.5 PFF grade, and it’s feasible to view him as the primary swing interior guy next season. As long as Thuney stays healthy, he’s probably going to be here until his contract runs out in 2027. Dalman and Jackson, though, who are also signed through 2027, are less certain. Particularly, Jackson has had injury issues in the past and could open the door for Newman to take his spot in 2026 if it happens again.

There’s a nonzero chance Newman finishes next year as a starter and claims a long-term spot going forward.

Jahdae Walker

I’ve never been more interested in a player who finished a season with six catches for 87 yards than I am in Walker.

The undrafted rookie, who was inactive for much of the season, made the most of his snaps in the Bears’ last three games, including nabbing two touchdowns. His clutch score to tie the game against the Packers in Week 16, and the trust Williams showed in him on that play, speaks volumes for his ability to be ready when his number is called.

His intriguing profile at 6-4, 205 pounds and solid production in limited opportunities has me more than ready to let Olamide Zaccheus hit free agency and hand his snaps to Walker as a WR3/4 next season. Though he doesn’t do all the same things as Zaccheaus, I trust him more to catch the football. Plus, his catch radius, which was on full display during that first touchdown grab against Green Bay, is a skill set the Bears don’t quite have at that position. More of that, please.

Zah Frazier

Candidly, I don’t think there’s a world in which the Bears can feasibly bring Nahshon Wright back given the production he had this year on a one-year deal. They don’t have the luxury of paying a boom-or-bust CB2 unless they clear a lot of cap space.

Frazier, a fifth-round pick out of UTSA, missed the entire season last year after being placed on NFI for “personal reasons.” But if he’s good to go, as general manager Ryan Poles indicated he would be, he could very well be the next Wright himself.

His combination of elite size at about 6-3, 190 pounds and excellent athleticism (4.36 40-yard dash, 37” vertical) made him an intriguing prospect coming out of college. He also has tremendous ball skills, nabbing six interceptions his last season of college.

Experience will be his main limiting factor, having missed all of his rookie season and playing just 29 college football games in total. But if he can just get in the building and show people what he can do in OTAs and training camp, there’s a chance he could be a steal for a cornerback room in need of a difference-maker next to Jaylon Johnson.

Kyle Monangai

The seventh-round back out of Rutgers flew under the radar for the first few weeks of the season. But once he found his legs, busting out for an insane 176 yards against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bears couldn’t hide him anymore.

At times this year, he was an even more lethal back than D’Andre Swift, making up for his lack of elite speed with pure tackle-breaking toughness. When the Bears needed to convert on third-and-short, they often turned to Monangai, and he delivered more than enough to justify it. Assuming the running back doesn’t meaningfully change next year, I’d expect Monangai’s role to increase as he expands his game as a pass-catcher and change-of-pace back for Swift, whose shiftier, quicker style meshed beautifully with the hard-charging rookie as the year progressed.

Given Johnson’s penchant for running the ball, there might even be an outside chance both Bears running backs could top 1,000 rushing yards next season if both stay healthy.

Luther Burden III

Anyone who’s read my stuff this year knows how much of an LBIII fan I am. Honestly, you should be, too, because I’m not sure we’ve seen anywhere near his peak as a player.

Because Mizzou’s offense and quarterback situation were so chaotic his last year in college, Burden came in with a reputation as a gadget guy who could only work with screens, end-arounds, and trick plays like the flea-flicker touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys. As we saw by the end of the season, he’s much more than that.

Not only is a YAC monster with elite twitch and the speed to win deep, he also has the footwork to run real receiver routes and be a threat in the middle of the field, where Caleb Williams loves to spin the ball. With Rome Odunze out, he slid effortlessly into a WR2 role and even busted out for eight catches and 138 yards against the San Francisco 49ers.

There’s an argument to be made that DJ Moore became expendable the day Burden was drafted, and a potential trade for the Bears’ big-name receiver is less about what Moore did in the Bears’ playoff loss and more about Burden’s insane upside at the position. It’s not an exaggeration to say there’s no more dangerous Bears player, period, with the ball in their hands than Burden, and Chicago can’t keep him on a WR3 snap count and target share after what he did this season.

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