The Chicago Bears will learn the order of their 2025 opponents Wednesday night when the NFL releases the full schedule.
When those games come around, could the Bears defense possibly have another high-profile addition? Brad Biggs’ weekly Bears mailbag begins there.
Does Ryan Poles give the Bengals another ring after the statement Trey Hendrickson released? — @thepenofeli
Let me preface this by saying I have no idea if the Cincinnati Bengals would entertain the possibility of trading Hendrickson, who expressed frustration this week that the team has more or less cut off communication with his camp.
If the Bengals explore the possibility and are seeking a first-round pick in exchange, I’d be stunned if the Bears had any interest. That would be a steep asking price because any team that acquired Hendrickson would have to give him an expensive extension as he’s entering the final year of his contract at $16 million.
Hendrickson, who told reporters in Cincinnati on Tuesday he won’t play this season on his current contract, has been a grand-slam free-agent addition for Bengals. He had 35 sacks over the last two seasons and 70½ over the last five seasons. He has been durable and is the kind of maximum-effort player every team and fan base loves. He played at a high level in New Orleans under new Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, so there’s a connection.
If the Bengals’ asking price in a potential trade is a second-round pick and maybe another, later-round selection, I still would be surprised if the Bears made a move. Hendrickson turns 31 in December. He’s angling for a third contract, which he certainly has earned, but the list of players who get expensive third contracts and then deliver value isn’t a long one.
As you probably know, the Bears have been entirely too dependent on free-agent and trade acquisitions to bolster their pass rush, an issue that predates Poles’ arrival. They’ve simply struggled to draft and develop pass rushers. They currently have $38.1 million in salary-cap space committed to edge defenders, ninth-most in the league, according to OverTheCap.com. Trade for Hendrickson and sign him to an extension, and the Bears would zoom to the top of that list or very near it.
It makes sense if the Bears are monitoring the market for potential veteran edge rushers, but a lot of people seem to forget they spent a good chunk of money in free agency to sign defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo. He got a three-year, $48 million contract with $28.5 million fully guaranteed. That’s not the kind of deal you hand out to someone you envision being a bit contributor.
The hope is Odeyingbo will emerge as a consistent, high-level producer opposite Montez Sweat this season. That’s why the Bears paid him big money in free agency. It’s a short-term deal, but Odeyingbo fits precisely what Allen covets in edge players with great size, length and power.
I don’t see how it makes sense to trade 2026 draft capital for Hendrickson, pay him a contract that likely would exceed $30 million per season and then use Odeyingbo as a part-time role player behind Sweat and Hendrickson with an average annual salary of $16 million. That just doesn’t add up to me.
I’d add that any team acquiring Hendrickson likely would view him as the final piece to a championship run. That’s how I’d look at him, anyway, if I were considering trading for him. The Bears are in Year 1 for coach Ben Johnson and coming off a five-win season. They’ve made some interesting moves this offseason and no doubt strengthened the roster. They have roughly $7.5 million in available cap space, which ranks 28th in the league, according to Spotrac.com. Yes, they easily could move money around in some veteran contracts to create more space, but do that and all of a sudden they go from being a team with a lot of cap flexibility to one that is tighter.
Dealing for Hendrickson — if he’s even going to be traded — doesn’t add up for the Bears from my viewpoint. But who knows? Poles has made some aggressive swings for high-end players.
You have to think the Bengals will attempt to mend fences with Hendrickson, something the Cleveland Browns accomplished with Myles Garrett, who had made it clear he never wanted to play for them again. The mistake the Bengals made was failing to extend Hendrickson last season. Now the marketplace has exploded and they have a guy who has earned a large raise.
Do you think Roschon Johnson can bounce back and have a Jamaal Williams-esque role in the offense? — bigbusinessbird
When evaluating veterans on the roster coming out of the draft, Johnson was one of the big winners. What does that prize entail? Opportunity.
Can Johnson factor in the offense like Williams once did (1,066 yards, 17 rushing touchdowns in 2022) in a shared backfield in Detroit when Ben Johnson was the Lions offensive coordinator? I don’t know. What I do know is a lot of playing time and carries are up for grabs. Opportunity is all Roschon Johnson realistically could have been seeking, and with the Bears unable to land a running back in the draft before the seventh round, his chances haven’t taken a hit. It’s all about what he does with those opportunities from here.
Right now, the primary competition is D’Andre Swift, who has a different skill set, and rookie Kyle Monangai. I’d expect the Bears to add to the backfield before training camp. Whether that’s a player with ample or minimal experience, we don’t know. But Johnson, a fourth-round pick in 2023, has a decent shot if he performs well. He needs to run with consistent pad level and prove he’s a quick study in the new system. He’ll also need to be well-rounded with what he offers in the passing game.
Do you think Ben Johnson brings that hyperaggressive-on-fourth-down mindset or is that mainly a Dan Campbell trait? — @bheadr75
I’m not sure you’re looking for the new coach to be as aggressive on fourth down so much as you want him to be more successful. The Bears ranked second in the NFL in going for it on fourth down last season, attempting 38 times, six behind the league-leading Browns. Many of those attempts were late-game efforts more than calculated fourth-down decisions, but the numbers are the numbers.
The Bears weren’t bad on fourth down, either, converting 23 times (60.5%). That ranked 13th in the NFL. The best offense on fourth down by a wide margin was the Washington Commanders, who were 20-for-23 (87%). The Lions had the fourth-most attempts with 33 and converted 22 (66.7%), which tied for seventh.
I believe Johnson will lean into his mathematical background when it comes to fourth-down decisions. I chatted with Bengals coach Zac Taylor in February about his time as a Miami Dolphins assistant under Joe Philbin when Johnson was just breaking into the NFL. It’s included in a long profile of Johnson that you might enjoy.
As Taylor explained, Johnson persuaded Philbin to allow him to do an offseason study of probabilities when going for it on fourth down. This was more than a decade ago, when coaches were more buttoned up with such decisions.
“Ben felt strongly enough that he had the right information that we should be more aggressive,” Taylor said. “He could approach things differently and gave a presentation to the whole staff, the data he had put together.
“So he’s 1,000 times smarter that way than any of us in the room on this, and he’s left-handed (although Johnson throws a football and eats with his right hand) and writes funny. It’s all these traits that I see these Sean McVay-type guys have, these left-handed, write-funny, brain-thinks-differently guys, and it was a spectacular presentation. Dead on.
“Now, it takes a lot of guts to jump on board with what he was saying: ‘Hey! You should be going for it.’ Bottom line was, and I’m looking for the right word here, the gumption of a guy like that. He was confident enough to say, ‘I’m going to put myself out there in front of a staff of people that have way more experience than I do because I believe in this.’
“It was impressive. I knew that because I worked side by side with him every day, but I am sure that’s where other guys, it really opened their eyes to the capability of Ben.”
What did Philbin think when it was over?
“I didn’t take all of his advice,” he said. “I think he wanted me to go for it every single time.”
By the way, another Dolphins assistant in the room during that presentation was Dan Campbell.
I’m surprised how seriously everyone is seeing seventh-round pick Kyle Monangai as a real solution at running back. If he was that good, he would have been taken earlier, no? — @brooklyncorn
I’m going to assume you’re somewhat new around here if you find the optimism surprising that the fan base has for Monangai, who was a super-productive player at Rutgers. It’s the offseason and it’s the Bears, and that means the sun shines on most days.
Here’s the deal: Monangai happened to be part of a very talented class of running backs, arguably the best in a number of years. In a different class, he might have been the 12th running back to come off the board instead of the 22nd in a draft that saw 25 selected.
Monangai slipped down the board because of measurables. He’s not very big, measuring 5-foot-8 and 211 pounds with 28¾-inch arms at the scouting combine. He didn’t have a great time in the 40-yard dash, running it in 4.60 seconds. But you can find backs at that speed who have been very successful in the NFL, and David Montgomery is just one example. Montgomery also doesn’t have great size but he has a bigger frame than Monangai.
What Monangai did do in college was compile impressive statistics in the Big Ten behind an offensive line that wasn’t great. Because of his college production and durability (and because it was such a great class for running backs), I’m taking an open-minded approach when it comes to Monangai. When I was chatting with a national scout in March and asked for names of tone-setting running backs who were under the radar, Monangai was one of the first he mentioned, citing his intangibles, work ethic and production. We have to see how it plays out, and that means seeing him run with pads on and playing in preseason games.
What’s the plan for Luther Burden on snaps? Will he be in the slot only? Will he return kicks? — @brendo120
Burden showcased the ability to be extremely productive playing in the slot at Missouri. I’d expect the Bears to use him there, but ultimately Ben Johnson will want to move his skill-position players around the field to create mismatches and advantages. We even could see Burden in the backfield on occasion.
As far as returning kicks, the Bears surely will look at Burden there, but he didn’t do a ton of that in college. He had 24 punt returns in three seasons, with 12 coming as a freshman, and returned only one kickoff. I have to imagine Devin Duvernay is the leading candidate to be the punt returner at this point.
Is there a specific safety out in the open market the Bears could bring in that fits Dennis Allen’s scheme? — @isaac__zuniga
There’s not a ton left on the street right now at any position, but there are definitely veteran options at safety, running back and a handful of other positions. Justin Simmons, Julian Blackmon and Jordan Whitehead are probably the best safeties available. I doubt Simmons signs unless he’s more or less guaranteed a starting spot, and the same could be true for the other two.
This is probably a position the Bears are keeping an eye on, but they have Elijah Hicks entering a contract year and he has started 15 games for them, including 13 over the last two seasons. The lack of action at the position tells us the Bears at least feel good about giving Hicks another opportunity to emerge as the third option.
One name to keep an eye on is Marcus Williams. He spent his first five seasons playing for Allen with the Saints. What I don’t know is how much Williams, who turns 29 in September, has left. The Ravens released him in March after he spent the last three seasons in Baltimore. Williams lost his starting job last season and didn’t play after Week 12.
In your opinion who fills the third linebacker spot? Do you think Ruben Hyppolite III gets it? — @stanleyb_920
That’s a good question and one that was on my mind during rookie minicamp when I asked Ben Johnson if the strong-side linebacker alongside Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards is on the current roster or if they had an inkling who that player would be.
“We’ll find out,” Johnson said. “We certainly have an open competition. We feel really good obviously about T.J. and Tremaine and what they’ve done over the course of not just last year but the last few years in this league. Really comfortable there.
“But that third spot, it’s up for grabs, and so we do have a prototype. (Dennis Allen) has got a prototype for what that Sam would look like. We’re more concerned … let’s find our third-best linebacker and we’ll figure it out from there.
“We’ve got a lot of scenarios going on in our heads right now of what that could be, but we won’t know for sure until we get the pads on. Obviously Noah Sewell’s been in the building and he’s shown a lot of good things over the last few weeks, and we’ve got a good mix of other guys in that room as well.”
There’s no question Hyppolite will be in the mix. That’s why the Bears drafted him in the fourth round. Sewell, a fifth-round pick in 2023, has to stay healthy. He has missed too much developmental time in the offseason, training camp and regular season to be counted on to this point. Sewell can make a bid for the job but he has to remain available.
Johnson’s reply underscored what I think will be an interesting aspect of training camp and the preseason. The Bears always preach competition, but it has been lip service in some cases in recent years. With a new coaching staff in place, I believe competition will be more genuine at a number of positions, and strong-side linebacker certainly qualifies. So this is a developing story as July and August approach.
“I really don’t want to get too much into depth of what that personnel’s going to look like,” Johnson said when asked about the left tackle position. “We just simply don’t know. We’ll find that out when we get pads on. You can’t climb the depth chart in the springtime, particularly on O-line and D-line, if we don’t have the pads on.”
Keep in mind what Johnson said in regard to the depth chart at Sam linebacker, running back, left tackle and other positions this spring. Yes, some starters are entrenched. Other spots, and particularly backup jobs, are up for grabs and right now the depth chart is blank.
The Bears need help on the edge and Za’Darius Smith remains unsigned. The dude has played for the entirety of the NFC North, save for Chicago. Is it time for Ryan Poles to kick the tires? — Greg M.
The new coaching staff needs to get a better feel for what it has in Austin Booker before it wades into the free-agent market for potential help. In a perfect world, Booker is ready to fill a situational pass-rushing role. As I noted above in the answer to the Trey Hendrickson question, the Bears have been inept at growing their own pass rushers, and before going outside the building for help, they need to determine if Booker potentially can fill the role.
The Browns traded Smith to the Lions last season after the Aidan Hutchinson injury, and he had nine sacks in 17 games between the two teams. He was earning $11 million and my guess is he isn’t interested in playing for considerably less than that, but who knows? I don’t disagree that the Bears could use a boost on the edge, but the first opportunity has to go to Booker.
