The Chicago Bears are back in a frustrating injury situation with slot cornerback Kyler Gordon after spending most of the 2025 season without him on the field.
Gordon landed on the active/physically unable to perform (PUP) list for the Bears this week when he reported for training camp with a lingering soft-tissue injury to his calf. It is the same injury that held him out of the team’s offseason program in the spring.
Gordon is also no stranger to soft-tissue injuries, having missed 14 games for the Bears during the 2025 regular season due to injuries affecting his groin, calf and hamstring.
“Obviously, he’s frustrated,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said July 28. “We’re frustrated. Everybody here is putting their time and effort into getting him back.”
In the meantime, though, Bears head coach Ben Johnson is turning his attention to the other defensive backs available to compete for the nickel role and leaving Gordon with a simple two-word message — one that could just as easily be taken as a blunt warning.
“Get healthy,” Johnson said.
Kyler Gordon’s Salary-Cap Cost Will Leap in 2026
When Gordon missed time in 2025, the situation was slightly more stomachable for the Bears in the sense that he cost only about $4.629 million total against their salary cap.
That is no longer the case in 2026.
Gordon signed a three-year, $40 million contract extension in April 2025 that will start to toll in the upcoming season. According to Over the Cap, he will carry a cap charge of $12.91 million in 2026, with the number rising to $13.3 million in both 2027 and 2028.
Now, Gordon is well worth the high price when he is healthy for the Bears. He was one of the best slot defenders in the NFL during the 2024 season and would provide a major boost to the Bears defense in 2026 if he could snap back into similar form, injury-free.
The Bears could have a tough decision to make about Gordon’s future in 2027, though, if the injuries continue to limit his availability or his performance declines on the field.
Bears Have ‘A Lot of Options’ to Compete for Slot Role
Johnson didn’t set expectations for when the team might expect Gordon to rejoin them on the practice field this summer, but he did talk further on their contingency plans.
“We’re stocked back up in that DB room again, and we’ll see how it all plays out,” Johnson said on July 28. “There’ll be certain players that flash here, and we’ll give them opportunities to run with the 1s while Kyler’s out. We’ll see where it goes from there, but we have a lot of options from rookies all the way to some of these veteran players, the free agents we brought in. I think we’re going to have a healthy competition in that room.”
Johnson didn’t name specific players, but he gave enough detail that one can infer at least a few of the defensive backs who could vie for the nickel job. Fourth-round rookie Malik Muhammad is an obvious choice as the most meaningful defensive back that the team added to its roster in the offseason. Cam Lewis, a safety, could also enter the fray.
The Bears have also trusted Josh Blackwell — who has made an impact on special teams over the past two seasons — as one of Gordon’s backups in the slot in the past. Perhaps the team is ready to test him and see if he can rise above his primarily third-phase role.
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