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The Chicago Bears Who Should Be Motivated Most for 2026 Season

Coach Ben Johnson's comment about being comfortable by being uncomfortable applies to many Bears for this season, and here's who.
Gene Chamberlain|
Rome Odunze should be among the most motivated Bears in 2026.
Rome Odunze should be among the most motivated Bears in 2026. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Question about how well motivated the Bears can be in Ben Johnson's second season seem rather short sighted.

It's easier for players to be motivated in the first year with new coaches because they must prove themselves.

It's also true Johnson inspired with his postgame antics and at various other times, and duplicating some of those spontaneous situations will be all but impossible. However, the Bears found their inspiration from numerous sources.

This year's Bears have the greatest source of inspiration ahead, at least according to the thoughts of famed German-American psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm. 

"The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning," Fromm said. "Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.”

Johnson understood this when he came to Halas Hall last year and put it in a way players understood best: "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."

The Bears currently have the least amount of salary cap space available in the entire NFL at $243,078. Yet, by March of 2028 they will have the most salary cap space available at $287,987,044, with only 11 players under contract then.

There should be plenty of players highly motivated by the uncertainty this represents.

Uncertainty comes in many forms, though. It might be losing a job or a starting role, gaining a big contract or settling for less. It could simply be what can happen if you take a step back.

Here are the Bears who should be motivated most going into the 2026 season.

10. RB D'Andre Swift

It's a contract year, but even if it wasn't Swift has been the consummate pro. He's always motivated.

9. TE Cole Kmet

His contract brings a net cap improvement situation of $8.4 million if cut after June 1 and $5.2 million if before June 1. The same is true for trades.  He's also no longer the most essential player at his position, with Colston Loveland's development. Most players might consider this like walking a tightrope all year but Kmet has always been a focused, motivated player.

8. T Darnell Wright

His fifth-year option is due for consideration by May, and this seems a given. It would be about $20.497 million by projections. However, players in their fourth seasons who get their first really big money will get much more on the next contract and Wright will be entirely motivated for this. A poor 2024 season might even cause the Bears to reconsider future interest in him, although this seems unlikely after he has advanced throughout his career.

Sure, it was the previous GM, but the Bears picked up Leonard Floyd's fifth-year option and then didn't extend him. It happens.

Wright should be plenty motivated despite being an All-Pro last year for the first time.

7. CB Tyrique Stevenson

Last year’s incentive was wiping out memory of the Hail Mary, although that's pretty much impossible. It's a contract year now. Stevenson basically lost his starting role last year to someone later determined to be unwanted by the team during free agency -- Nahshon Wright. So what does that say for where Stevenson stands in their eyes?

6. C Garrett Bradbury

Bradbury got to play one year on a Super Bowl offensive line and now he's expected to play in the final year of a contract for another team with Super Bowl aspirations. If he wants to keep the job beyond one year, the opportunity should be there. Even if the Bears draft a potential replacement, it's not going to be like selecting a first-round player for the position, and possibly even Round 2. There aren't any centers graded that high in this draft.

5. CB Kyler Gordon

Gordon failed to live up to a new contract last year through no fault of his own with 14 regular-season games missed due to injury, and then produced in the postseason. Gordon has missed 23 games in four seasons and never had a season with less than two missed games. The Bears certainly had to give him leeway last year because cutting him this year would have been impossible, and trading him difficult due to how his contract is structured. After this season his contract is readily disposable.

4. WR Rome Odunze

There are doubters everywhere after an injury-plagued second season when his target total dropped by 11, catch total dropped by 10, and he still hasn't gone over 54 catches or 734 yards as a top-10 draft pick. First-round receivers want to look at Jaxson Smith-Njigba's contract situation and see big dollars coming. In Odunze's case, just getting more than 55 receptions needs to be his goal because he has done nothing yet to indicate he's capable of earning that kind money.

Remember this: Chase Claypool made 23 more catches for 338 more yards in his first two years than Odunze had and look what happened to him.

3. DT Gervon Dexter

Waiting for defensive tackles to develop can be like hatching an egg. There have been so many positives here, yet the breakthrough hasn't occurred. Especially against the run, Dexter needs to step forward in a contract year both for himself and the team. The team really, really needs this.

2. CB Jaylon Johnson

His 24 missed games in five years isn't ideal, but now he has to prove he hasn't lost anything after core muscle surgery and with 10 missed games last season. Johnson's contract is not disposable at all this year at any time. It's still a problem in terms of dead cap next year but still more easily handled by trade or by being cut after this season. Much is expected from the guy who has the second-biggest cap hit at $24.5 million.

1. QB Caleb Williams

Plenty of QBs had strong second or third seasons and then fizzled. Baker Mayfield was one, and even though he eventually found success in Tampa Bay he has gone through the gauntlet and bounced around the league as a bottom-dollar type of QB. Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl but went from first-rounder to flop first. Williams is the apple of everyone's eye right now, but his production overall wasn't enough to indicate he had arrived in Year 2. And now Johnson is going to hit him with every part of the offense he can handle. No more kid gloves. Can the Ice Man hold up to the heat from expectations without melting?  Huge money awaits if he does.

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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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