Besides producing turnovers, the Chicago Bears had one of the worst defenses last year against the run and the pass. Those struggles started with the defensive line.
Shortly before finalizing their initial 53-man roster, Chicago made the decision to trade away one of their starting defensive linemen, Gervon Dexter, to the Atlanta Falcons. Despite performing poorly against the run last season, Dexter was a valuable asset to the Bears’ defense in terms of getting to the quarterback. In fact, he was second with Chicago in sacks in 2024 and 2025.
It is unclear who is going to be expected to replace that production although Kentavius Street, who impressed coaches all throughout training camp and the preseason, could step into that role. The Bears should
also have a clearer picture of how defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo is going to fit into the defense and how much of an impact he will have this season.
The Bears only drafted one defensive lineman in the 2026 NFL Draft, sixth rounder Jordan van den Berg, who has excelled in training camp and was able to get some practice going against Chicago’s starting offensive line. With the players the Bears currently have on the roster, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen feels confident in their defensive line room going into the season opener against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 13.
“I feel really confident with who we have on the defensive line,” Allen said. “The style that we want to play, I think we’ve got guys that can do the things that we want to do. I felt like all along that was probably our deepest position group, we had a lot of guys that are NFL-caliber football players. You can’t keep all of them, but we feel good about where we’re at.”
Even though Allen said he is confident in the defensive line, it would not be surprising to see Chicago either trade for a defensive lineman or sign someone who is currently available in free agency, especially if they struggle in the opener.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Dennis Allen sounds off on confidence in Bears' defensive line
