Windy City Gridiron
WCG’s lead draft analyst looks into five Bears players heading into crucial 2025 campaigns.
With a new coaching staff in place and several new contributors in the fold, the Bears are a different team from how they looked in 2024.
Whether or not that results in wins remains to be seen. Regardless, such a broad change across the organization certainly shakes up the status quo.
There are various reasons a player can enter a season with a little extra to prove. Impending contract extensions, easy ways out of their contract or a lackluster start to one’s career could all be valid reasons to dub this upcoming year as a “make-or-break” campaign for a specific player.
We’ll take a look at five players on the Bears this might apply to. An honorable mention goes to Braxton Jones, who is slated to hit free agency after the 2025 season. I didn’t include him since it feels likely he’ll get a large contract; it’s just a matter of whether or not that deal comes from Chicago.
Rumors ran rampant about the Bears potentially trading up to draft Ashton Jeanty, who ended up going No. 6 overall to the Raiders. A recent report indicated Chicago was open to moving up a spot to secure TreVeyon Henderson in Round 2, who landed with the Patriots one spot before the Bears selected Luther Burden III.
All this to say: the Bears didn’t end up selecting a running back until Round 7 of the 2026 NFL Draft, but they’re clearly looking to upgrade from D’Andre Swift. The incumbent starter was used mostly as a rotational back when he overlapped with Ben Johnson in Detroit.
Swift is coming off of a career-low 3.8 yards per carry in 2024, and the Bears would save $7.5 million by releasing him next offseason. If he doesn’t bounce back in a big way, he could be as good as gone in 2026.
PFF is hardly the end-all, be-all in terms of player evaluation, but it’s absolutely a helpful tool. Its grades certainly don’t paint a pretty picture regarding Tremaine Edmunds’ tenure with the Bears.
In his final season with the Bills, Edmunds finished with an 81.9 player grade, making him one of the most efficient off-ball linebackers in the league. In his two seasons since joining the Bears, though, he has graded beneath 60.0 both years. Considering 60.0 is the baseline starting grade for all players, that indicates he has been an outright liability for Chicago’s defense.
Inconsistencies in coverage, limited pass-rushing value and lackluster processing are all major issues for a player entering his eighth year in the NFL. The Bears would save $15 million by releasing him next offseason, which feels like a foregone conclusion unless he somehow bounces back to his Pro Bowl-caliber play.
Cole Kmet is coming off of a down year of production in 2024, though a lot of it admittedly came down to poor offensive play-calling by...
