Windy City Gridiron
Before kicking off our 2025 list, we look back at last year’s version.
I’m reminded of a couple of things every year I kick off this annual summer series. One, the Chicago Bears just haven’t been very good during my run here at Windy City Gridiron. More often than not, the Bears I rank as most important to the team’s upcoming season fail to come through big enough to make a difference.
And two, I’m getting old!
Sure, age is all relative, but this was the first project I tackled when becoming an official writer here at WCG in 2009, which makes this my seventeenth 10 Most Important Bears series.
In that time, I’ve only covered three winning seasons.
That changes this year. I can feel it.
Before I kick off the 2025 version of the series, I always take a look back to get a sense of what went wrong. Here’s my look back from last year featuring a whole lot of yikes.
As a reminder, importance is subjective, so here’s the basic criteria I came up with back in 2009 to help guide me through my initial series.
What potential impact they may have, how much the team will look to the individual for guidance or leadership, how badly the team would suffer if they lost the player to injury, and other intangible attributes.
If we’re being honest, there’s no right or wrong way to rank “importance,” so think of these as just a fun way to get us all discussing what could be for our favorite team.
Here’s last season’s list, and you can click on the link on each name to see the reasoning I had in my articles from last year.
10) Kevin Byard - The veteran safety did bounce back from an uneven 2023 to help stabilize the secondary. It’s just too bad there were some other issues on what could have been one of the better secondaries in the league.
9) Ryan Bates or Coleman Shelton (Center) - Shelton won the gig by default, and after a rough start, he settled down and played decent football.
8) D’Andre Swift - I wouldn’t call Swift’s signing a miss, but he had an awful start, and it took the Bears some time to understand how to work him into the offense.
7) Montez Sweat - Sweat did not build off his Pro Bowl 2023. There was some discussion of an injury he was playing through, so hopefully that’s behind him.
6) Darnell Wright - Wright’s sophomore season in Chicago was even better than his first.
5) DJ Moore - Last year was a weird one for Moore. He received a massive contract extension, his usage was inconsistent, there were some rumors and drama he had to deal with, but he still fell just shy of 100 catches and 1,000 yards.
4) Gervon Dexter Sr. - He improved, but he didn’t become the three-technique engine that powered the defense the team hoped after they ignored...
