It’s only March 18th, and certainly the Chicago Bears could still make additions to their defensive line. There aren’t many impact players left via free agency; perhaps Cam Jordan is in their future. They could make a trade and add a legitimate body; we know Maxx Crosby’s name has been batted about for months.
But if the Bears don’t make any more legitimate additions to their defensive line, there’s no other way to look at this: Ryan Poles, Ben Johnson, and Dennis Allen have failed to address their biggest
need.
I know there are a handful of you who read the first two paragraphs and rolled your eyes and said, “Shut up, they still have the draft.”
My response to that would be: Do you know how few rookie defensive linemen make an impact their first year in the league? Especially ones drafted as far back as the Bears are?
I fully expect the Bears to add at least two defensive linemen in the draft. With those additions and hoping Shemar Turner starts taking meaningful steps forward, you can hope the Bears’ defensive line will improve in the coming years.
But I’m not talking about 2027 or 2028. I am talking about 2026. And for 2026, the Bears have failed in this aspect.
I’m not going to get into finances, salary cap space, and what they could have done to open up space. The Bears could have done it and done it without a significant impact on their future. But the Bears failed to improve their biggest weakness on the roster, and they did it when a Super Bowl window is open.
The Bears have officially opened a Super Bowl window. They have the coach. They have the quarterback. They have a strong offensive line. They have playmakers. They have a decent back seven on defense. But they have very little ability to make any kind of impact up front on defense.
They have Montez Sweat and a bunch of guys that can’t be considered impactful for 2026. The Bears simply cannot win the way their defensive line played last season. Dennis Allen can dial up every stunt, blitz, and twist that he wants. In the end, if you can’t do anything with 4 guys up front, the great teams will bite you in the butt in January.
How the Bears can look at the window that’s opened up and choose not to allocate any of their resources to the defensive line is truly mind-boggling. In my opinion, the Bears simply cannot win the Super Bowl this season with the current construction of their defensive line. And what’s even more frustrating for me is that I think Ryan Poles and company know this, too.
If your plan is truly to hope that Dayo Odeyingbo coming off his second Achilles tear is more productive than he was last season before the injury, if you hope that Grady Jarrett winds back the clock and becomes the 2023 version of Jarrett that appears to be long gone, if you hope that Shemar Turner and/or Austin Booker take major steps forward, and you hope that the rookies you draft also have some level of impact.
That is so much hope, it would simply be delusion.
The long-term plan for the Bears’ defensive line is to absolutely build through the draft, but the idea that, at this point, they’ve made no short-term signings on the defensive line makes you wonder what they possibly think they can get out of this unit in 2026.
Do they actually think it’s good enough?
Do they think they can win the Super Bowl with this group?
Are they just punting until 2027 before they go all-in?
There are a lot of questions, and there aren’t many answers. But at this point, it’s very fair to question exactly what Halas Hall is thinking when they look at the unit on paper and expect it to perform at the level it needs to in 2026.
