Pressure ramps up as Bears rely on 2026 draft class to complete roster rebuild
The Bears talked about their roster during the NFL Draft last month as though they had the luxury of being able to select players based purely on the best available talent rather than targeting pressing needs. The reality, though, is that some of their weak spots put ample pressure on this rookie class to contribute right away.
All seven of the Bears’ draft picks, from first-round safety Dillon Thieneman to sixth-round defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg, have paths to significant roles this season. Their bids for those spots began Friday and Saturday at rookie minicamp.
All eyes have been on Thieneman. He almost certainly will be a Week 1 starter and very well could open organized team activities at the end of the month atop the depth chart alongside veteran Coby Bryant.
The spotlight is on him not only because of where he was picked, No. 25 overall out of Oregon, but because general manager Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson believed so strongly in his star potential that they passed on prospects at premium positions such as left tackle and defensive end.
“They expect a certain level of production coming in,” Thieneman said -after his first practice.
They all need to wrap their minds around that demand. Coming off a division title and a playoff victory, this is no time for the Bears to take a step backward. After being relatively quiet in free agency, they can’t afford their draft picks to use this as an acclimation season.
That includes players who, unlike Thieneman, have veterans standing in their way.
Iowa center Logan Jones, a second-round pick at No. 57 overall, has some margin in his timeline because the Bears traded for Patriots veteran Garrett Bradbury in March. It’ll be difficult for him to master Johnson’s offense by the season opener, but there’s certainly hope within Halas Hall that he takes over the job at some point this season.
When asked Friday how quickly he believes Jones can be ready to play, Johnson made the expectations clear by saying, “The ball is in his court, as far as I’m concerned.”
Bradbury, a 30-year-old on his third team in three seasons, was always going to be a placeholder after Drew Dalman’s retirement. He’s on an expiring contract, so next season is the deadline for Jones to step in. But the Bears clearly believe Jones eventually will be better than Bradbury, and it’s up to him how soon that will be.
The team also didn’t draft Stanford tight end Sam Roush or LSU wide receiver -Zavion Thomas, both third-rounders in the top 90 overall selections, to be fringe players or essentially red-shirt this season.
Roush is behind Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet for now. He must assert himself as a multipurpose tool for Johnson this season and affirm to the Bears that he can do more down the road. Kmet was a potential salary-cap casualty this offseason and could be in 2027, too.
Thomas will get a shot right away as a kick returner, but there’s also an opening at wide receiver behind Rome Odunze and Luther Burden. After trading DJ Moore to the Bills, the Bears’ biggest addition at that position is 31-year-old Kalif Raymond, whom they signed to a cheap one-year deal.
Raymond has the inside track because he played for Johnson in Detroit, but he had 35 or fewer catches in each of the last three seasons. In a perfect world, the Bears would develop a dynamic receiving corps of Odunze (23 years old), Burden (22) and Thomas (21).
Texas cornerback Malik Muhammad has as good of a shot at starting as anybody in this class other than Thieneman. The Bears will hold an open competition for the outside corner spot opposite Jaylon Johnson.
Tyrique Stevenson is penciled in — lightly — for that job, but there never has been any certainty with him. Terell Smith, a fifth-round pick the same year in which Stevenson was a second-rounder, has challenged him throughout their time with the Bears, though Smith is coming off a major knee injury.
Fifth-round pick Keyshaun Elliott, from Arizona State, enters a fairly open field for the strong-side linebacker job, and van den Berg, out of Georgia Tech, was the only draft addition to a defensive line that has been underwhelming for years. Both have an opportunity to be significant factors for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen this season if they’re good enough.
Rookie minicamp gives them, as well as the undrafted signees, a chance to grasp the framework of Johnson and Allen’s systems. They likely still will be floundering when the veterans arrive for OTAs and minicamp, but the hope is that they’re relatively caught up by the time training camp begins in July.
The Bears’ dependence on this rookie class is reflective of how far they still have to go to become a true contender. The draft usually should be future-focused, but that’s only for teams that are fully built. The Bears aren’t quite at that stage; they’re hoping this class will help them get there.