The Chicago Bears have elaborated on their hand about their pass-rushing plan after ignoring the edge rusher position during last weekend’s 2026 NFL draft.
The Bears added four new defensive players — including a likely Day 1 starter in Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman — with their seven selections in the 2026 draft, but they didn’t pick a single defensive end, which was considered one of their biggest pre-draft needs.
The Bears had also largely ignored the edge rusher position during free agency in the spring. They signed veteran Neville Gallimore and backup Kentavius Street for their defensive interior, but the only defensive end move that they made was handing out a two-year contract extension to Daniel Hardy, who is primarily a special-teams player.
That leaves the Bears with Montez Sweat, Dayo Odeyingbo and Austin Booker as their primary three edge rushers for the 2026 season. Bears general manager Ryan Poles also confirmed that Shemar Turner, a 2025 second-rounder drafted to play defensive tackle — will remain at the defensive end position and compete for reps in this year’s rotation.
“At the defensive line position, Book’s coming along with Dayo, Sweat, Shemar,” Poles said after Day 2 of the draft. “We feel good about those guys. … [I] like what that group is and what they’re becoming, and we feel like there is some developmental upside, and like I said yesterday, with Year 2 in the system, we should be able to take the next step.”
Ben Johnson Saw ‘Growth’ From Shemar Turner at DE
Poles mentioned Turner as one of the Bears’ four 2026 edge rushers is significant, even though it should not be surprising to anyone who has paid attention in the offseason.
While Turner played defensive tackle in his final season at Texas A&M and in his first two career games for the Bears, he moved to defensive end for the final three games of his 2025 rookie season before tearing his ACL in Week 8’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens. At the time, Bears head coach Ben Johnson seemed encouraged about Turner’s move.
“I thought when we made that transition to defensive end, it certainly coincided with our ability to stop the run at a higher clip, and so we thought he was part of the solution there for us,” Johnson said October 27. “I think he looked somewhat natural to play that spot for a guy that hadn’t done a ton of it, so we were really excited to see what the next half of the season was going to look like as he continued to develop in that role.”
Six months later, Johnson still seems sold on Turner’s upside as an edge rusher.
“We were excited about the guys that ended up finishing the season on IR, the trajectory that they were on, both Dayo and Shemar,” Johnson said April 25. “When you look at it from the start of the season to the point where they both got injured, we saw growth and we saw them trending in the right direction, in terms of what we want to see on game day.
“The combination of us being able to coach better and those guys taking the next step as part of this system, I think we have some pretty good pieces to work with.”
Bears Could Make (Affordable) DE Signing Before Camp
Turner is clearly part of the Bears’ four-man plan at edge rusher for the 2026 season, but that does not mean they will restrict the plan to just four guys for training camp.
While the Bears did not select an edge rusher in the 2026 draft, Poles indicated that he and his staff worked the phone lines and evaluated what it would take to trade up into the top of the second round to land one before determining that the cost was too high. At a minimum, those efforts suggest the Bears are willing to add another edge rusher.
The problem is that Chicago does not have much money to throw around on a veteran.
According to Over the Cap, the Bears went into the draft with roughly $10.79 million in cap space after restructuring their deals with veterans Cole Kmet and Jonah Jackson. A significant portion of that money will need to go toward signing their draft picks and practice-squad players, though, while they could hold the rest for in-season expenses.
Even still, the Bears have some wiggle room between their roster-cut and restructure options. A veteran willing to sign for the right price could interest them, even if only as a camp competitor who can push their younger guys (Booker and Turner) with upside.
Former New Orleans Saints veteran Cam Jordan is a natural fit due to his history with Dennis Allen, but his price tag might be richer than the Bears can (or want to) afford. Preston Smith — a former Green Bay Packers starter — is also available and seems more likely to sign for a low cost, given that he produced just a half-sack in 13 games in 2025.
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