Projecting Week 1 Roles For Jordan van den Berg and Rest of Chicago Bears Rookies

When the Chicago Bears take on the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 on Sunday afternoon, we could see up to 10 players making their NFL debuts.

Those 10 players are the rookies on the Bears' 53-man roster. The Bears have all seven of their 2026 draft picks and three undrafted rookies in the group.

Chicago initially had 11 rookies in total on their initial 53-man roster, but tight end Hayden Large has since been placed on injured reserve.

As the Bears prepare for their season-opener on Sunday, here's what we expect in terms of roles for rookies in Week 1.

Dillon Thieneman

Projected role: Starter at safety

While head coach Ben Johnson previously said he's still figuring out who will start at one safety spot, Dillon Thieneman is locked into the other.

Thieneman's physical traits allow him to work back deep and in the box, so we'd expect to see him all over the field in the Bears' 2026 season debut on Sunday.

Logan Jones

Projected role: Backup center

It was believed Jones could possibly battle for the starting center job with Garrett Bradbury after he was a second-round pick of the Bears in April.

However, there was never any indication any semblance of a competition took place and instead Jones ran with the twos throughout the offseason and Bradbury is the clear starter.

We'll see if perhaps Jones can unseat Bradbury at some point in 2026, but for now the rookie is serving as a backup.

Sam Roush

Projected role: No. 3 tight end

The Bears are going to use a good amount of multiple tight end sets, but Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet will likely dominate looks in two tight end sets.

Where we should see Roush is three tight end sets, which Chicago used at the sixth-highest clip in the NFL last season and began to steadily use more as the season progressed.

Zavion Thomas

Projected role: Gadget player, returner

Offensive coordinator Press Taylor admitted that Thomas still has to prove himself in order to garner an early role in Chicago, even after his impressive 97-yard touchdown catch in the preseason finale against the Tennessee Titans.

“I don’t know how many people have taken one 97 on their first touch in the NFL. That’s something he is gifted with. But there’s so much more that goes into earning a role for yourself week to week. And so that’s something he’s going to continue to prove and earn as we go into the season," Taylor said.

One thing that slowed Thomas' development was all the practice time in camp and two preseason games he missed due to injury.

“Obviously it doesn’t help when you’re a young player and you’re needing to learn a lot and you gain a lot of experience, and then you miss a lot of time with an injury,” Taylor said. “So he’s still kind of in that process of catching up to everybody else that’s been here and going and competing. But I mean, the talent since the day he got here has flashed.”

With Thomas probably settling in as the No. 5 wide receiver, and with Taylor admitting he still has some proving to do, we could see Johnson drawing up a few plays to get the ball in Thomas' hands and some return work for the third-round pick.

Malik Muhammad

Projected role: Slot cornerback

After Cam Lewis moved to safety in the wake of the injury to Coby Bryant and Jaylon Jones got hurt earlier this training camp, it was Muhammad who stepped into the vast majority of the first-team reps at slot cornerback.

Now that Kyler Gordon has remained on the PUP list through the team's 53-man roster cutdown, and with Jones now gone after he was released from IR, the slot cornerback job is open and we're assuming Muhammad gets the nod.

The other alternative we could see if the Bears aren't totally set on deploying Muhammad is Lewis, who was previously competing for the job and has 493 career snaps at the position under his belt. Xavier Woods would start at safety in that scenario.

Keyshaun Elliott

Projected role: Inactive

At best, Elliott will only have a special teams role, but there is reason to believe he may not even be active in Week 1.

Elliott missed all of training camp and then some with injury, so he is likely very far behind in his development, both physically and in terms of learning the defense.

Barring injury, we'd expect T.J. Edwards, Devin Bush, D'Marco Jackson and Jack Sanborn to be the active linebackers when Chicago faces Carolina.

Jordan van den Berg

Projected role: Heavily involved in DL rotation

It's possible van den Berg might start, but we believe one of the two veterans upfront, Neville Gallimore or Kentavius Street, will receive the nod to officially start next to Grady Jarrett.

That said, whether he's starting or not, van den Berg is going to have a significant role out of the gate, especially now that the Bears traded Gervon Dexter. The sixth-round pick began his ascension toward a role in training camp before shining in preseason play. The hype is real for van den Berg.

Beau Gardner

Projected role: Long snapper

Gardner was embroiled in a competition with Luke Elkin during the offseason but ended up winning the battle early after Elkin was cut loose on Aug. 9.

The fact that Gardner was able to win the job so early is definitely encouraging, but he remains a concern because he has zero NFL experience. Gardner was, however, a decorated long snapper in college after winning the Patrick Mannelly Award and receiving first-team All-American honors in 2025.

Jayden Loving

Projected role: Somewhat involved in DL rotation

Loving was one of the bigger surprises to make the 53-man roster out of training camp and was one of the reasons why the Bears felt as comfortable as they did in parting ways with Gervon Dexter.

Like van den Berg, Loving has elite athleticism for the position, as evidenced by his 9.93 Relative Athletic Score. We suspect Loving will be the fifth man in the rotation upfront behind Jarrett, Street, Gallimore and van den Berg, so he may not see many snaps.

Skyler Thomas

Projected role: Inactive

It's possible Thomas will be active, but if so his role will be special teams only. There's a better chance he's inactive instead.

The Bears figure to dress four safeties on opening day, and that list is made up of Theieneman, Lewis, Xavier Woods and Elijah Hicks.

Even if the Bears view him as a slot cornerback where Thomas was listed on the team's final depth chart before cuts, both Muhammad and Josh Blackwell will be in front of him.

Thomas pretty much amounts to a fifth safety and a third slot cornerback, thus he may not be needed on gameday.

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