Bear Digest

Why the Bears Could Find Defensive Reboot Easier Than Projections

The Bears definitely need defensive help in the draft and free agency, but the task might not be the difficult chore some analysts predict.
Gene Chamberlain|
Grady Jarrett gets a sack of Jared Goff. The pass rush needs improvement, but so does the run defense.
Grady Jarrett gets a sack of Jared Goff. The pass rush needs improvement, but so does the run defense. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears need defensive help up front and it's reflected in all of the mock drafts coming out.

You don't finish 29th against the run and 31st in ESPN's pass rush win rate metric (29%) and think everything will simply be all right in 2026.

Draft analyst Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic chose 20-year-old Ohio State defensive tackle Kayden McDonald, a pick many earlier mock drafts had projected going well before the Bears pick at No. 25. There seems to be a post-Senior Bowl spike for Florida's Caleb Banks, who had been a popular mock Bears choice earlier.

Now Baumgardner thinks Banks is going 14th overall and in his mock draft for ESPN, Field Yates has Banks going 16th.

The Bears take Missouri defensive end Zion Young in Yates' mock while passing on Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods.

Either way, it's defensive line help and what they need.

D-line must improve

The narrative being created is the Bears' defense is terribly in need of a rebuild. As a result, they may not need to devote every resource to helping Dennis Allen's defense. And it goes beyond the fact they led the NFL in takeaways, something everyone says is unlikely to happen again in 2026 even though Dallas just repeated in 2021-22 with the same defensive backs coach the Bears have, Al Harris.

There is another very good reason to think the Bears need less defensive help than some may think. Of course they need to settle the safety situation because no one is signed and do need defensive tackles, but whatever they decide to personnel-wise it can be done in one offseason even with their apparent lack of cap space.

That's because they're not that bad, particularly in the secondary. They were just injured.

Injuries heal

They were 13th against the pass at the end of October but all of the injuries stacked up and hurt them against the run, which took down their pass defense.

The Bears in 2023 showed how fast it can turn around against the run. They went from 31st in 2022 to first in 2023, then dropped off the face of the earth again. Stop the run, then they have a better chance to stop the pass.

Beyond that, what are the chances of their defense being hit so hard by injuries again? Let me rephrase that because Ben Johnson and the Lions were No. 1 in games lost due to injuries in 2024. He came to Chicago and the Bears led the NFL in games lost due to injuries with 336.

This total includes backups like Terell Smith, who never played due to a preseason ACL tear, and several other season-enders early. But there were plenty more.

Key injured Bears players

Defensive games lost

  • Dayo Odeyingbo 9
  • Grady Jarrett 3
  • Austin Booker 7
  • Jaylon Johnson 10
  • Kyler Gordon 14
  • T.J. Edwards 7
  • Tremaine Edmunds 4
  • Noah Sewell 6
  • Tyrique Stevenson 3
  • Shemar Turner 12
  • Terell Smith  17
  • Zah Frazier 17

This didn't include the postseason.

Ben Johnson can't continue having the same bad luck with league-leading injury totals. At some point, he has to have better health. The law of averages say so.

Put these facts all together and perhaps they're close to fielding a top-flight or even respectable defense.

Poor Allen won't have to put together patchwork lineups each week and then all the points Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams produce stand up for easier wins.

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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.