Windy City Gridiron
The start of training camp is off and rolling, which means the 2025 NFL regular season is right around the corner. Following yet another busy offseason in Chicago, the Bears will be one of 32 teams looking to resolve their roster questions before the kickoff of the regular season. The hiring of a new coaching staff always brings changes to the roster. Those usually extend beyond the first acquisition period, which is already in the books.
For the Bears, it was one of their more active offseason in recent memory. They were active in the trade market and free agency, on top of handing out four contract extensions and eight draft picks. Despite their (5-12) record a season ago, this looks like a roster (on paper) ready to compete for a playoff spot. The better each team’s roster becomes, the tougher the decisions that will need to be made. Those tough decisions could come in the form of cuts or trades. We’ll take a look at five players who could find themselves on the move before September.
1. LT Braxton Jones
Although Jones tops this list as the first name, he might be the least likely, actually, to be dealt. Just hear me out: If the Bears are impressed enough with Ozzy Trapilo to make him their Week 1 starting left tackle, why not entertain trade offers for a starting-caliber left tackle that is all but guaranteed to leave in free agency next March? This isn’t a knock on Jones at all, because he’s well outperformed his fifth-round draft status. The reality is quite simple, though. Chicago cannot afford to pay a fourth offensive lineman, even just for a year.
In total, Jones has produced above-average results at left tackle. Again, not bad for a fifth-round selection. Even so, the team has made a concerted (and obvious) effort to draft his eventual replacement. Last year, it was Kiran Amegadjie, and this year, it was Trapilo with the No. 56 pick. I’m not going to sit here and say that Trapilo will be better than (or even equal to) Jones in Year 1, but if they have no plans of keeping Jones beyond this year, it might be best to guarantee themselves draft capital now.
Sure, they could let him walk in free agency, and in theory, they could receive a third or fourth-round compensatory pick for him in 2027. That would require him to start most, if not all, of this season, and the Bears to make a concentrated effort to play the checks and balances game that goes into the compensatory formula. That would not only mean losing more free agents than they sign, but also failing to secure any big contracts to offset Jones’ value. Considering Dan Moore signed a four-year, $82 million deal in free agency this year, there’s a strong chance that Jones would qualify as a third-round value in the formula. The bigger issue is that you’d be asking a team that is still building...
