Without so much as lifting a pen, Bears general manager Ryan Poles can bring back every single defensive starter next year.
All 11 of the Bears starters are under contract for 2025. There was a time not long ago —two months, maybe— that the Bears were seemingly in an ideal scenario, able to return the entirety of a starting unit that would be above-average at minimum and great at best. When the Bears boasted in training camp they’d be a top-five defense, it was a reasonable target.
Not anymore. Matt Eberflus’ firing after Week 13 was the right move for the franchise, but it was the wrong one for the Bears defense. In the first 13 weeks of the season, the Bears allowed the ninth-fewest points in the NFL. From Weeks 14-16, they gave up 102 points, the third-most in the league. Under Eberflus, they were 20th in yards allowed. From Weeks 14-16, playing for Eric Washington, they gave up the second-most.
The Bears defense bounced back Thursday night, but it came with a caveat the size of the Space Needle: it was on a Thursday night, when NFL games are typically turned into slogs. In a 6-3 loss at Soldier Field, the Bears gave up field goals on the first and last Seahawks drives of the first half. Before Thursday’s game, the Seahawks had gained 79 rushing yards in all their opening drives, combined, this season. Using backup running back Zach Charbonnet against the Bears, they gained 53 in their first possession at Soldier Field. That’s as much as they totaled in the entirety of Sunday’s loss to the Vikings.
Unlike their counterparts on offense — namely, the offensive line — the Bears can’t blame attrition. Thursday night against the Seahawks, the Bears started nine out of their 11 regular starters. The only two missing were safety Jaquan Brisker, who’s been out since Week 6 with a scary concussion, and nose tackle Andrew Billings, who tore his pec in Week 9 and required season-ending surgery.
Everyone else in the starting lineup was part of the plan — and that’s the most disturbing part of the Bears’ decision-making going forward.
“I haven’t taken the full time that’s needed to reflect on everything,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said on the team’s official ESPN1000 pregame show Thursday. “I know that we have a lot of really talented players on this roster that are gonna be here in ’25. You see the progress with [quarterback] Caleb [Williams] every single week and you understand there’s impact players on this team. There’s a clear vision of what we need to take the next step. We have the resources and the flexibility to do that. I think the important thing is getting through this season and taking the time to detail that out.”
Can Poles say with a straight face that their defense has “a lot of really talented players?” Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, despite his late-game mistakes this season, remains their best defensive player. When healthy, nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon — who recovered a fumble in the third quarter Thursday — plays like someone most likely to get a contract extension this year.
Defensive end Montez Sweat has been a disappointment — his sack total improved to 5 ½ in the first quarter Thursday when Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith slipped and Sweat fell on top of him. Linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards are solid, particularly in the red zone — but they’re not Roquan Smith, the linebacker Poles traded about nine months after taking over as GM. Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter, whom the Bears drafted with the third-round pick the Ravens sent Poles for Smith, has been held up by the Bears as the reason they didn’t take a big swing at the position in free agency. That’s turned out to be a mistake — Dexter posted four sacks in the first five games and only half of one the rest of the season entering Thursday’s game.
And then there’s Tyrique Stevenson, the cornerback who learned so little from his Fail Mary gaffe that he’s been involved in extracurricular nonsense in almost every game since — including Thursday, when he goaded Seahawks receiver D.K. Metcalf into punching him in the helmet and pointing in his face.
If those players as talented as the Bears believed them to be, their defense would be better.
This year, Poles decided to patch a shoddy defensive line with low-level trades. Over two days in August, he sent the Seahawks a sixth-round pick for edge rusher Darrell Taylor and traded another sixth to the Browns for defensive tackle Chris Williams and a seventh-round pick.
Poles needs to try to solve his most pressing problem — defensive line — with premium resources: high picks and free agency. The Bears will have money — $81.6 million in 2025, according to Spotrac estimates. They can add more by paying dead cap charges and cutting some of their defensive starters — defensive lineman DeMarcus Walker or safety Kevin Byard — that otherwise would be under contract.
Regardless of what Poles decides to do, this much is clear: the defensive starters that ran through the tunnel at Soldier Field on Sunday can’t be the same group that takes the field the next time the Bears a regular season game in their home stadium.
