The Chicago Bears are about to open training camp with several defensive jobs still unsettled, and the focus is already on which players can turn strong auditions into real roles. Dayo Odeyingbo, Jordan van den Berg, Devin Bush, Tyrique Stevenson and Dillon Thieneman are among the names being watched most closely as the team tries to build on an 11-win season.
That interest is not hard to understand. The Bears are coming off an 11-win season in 2025, won the NFC North for the first time since 2018 and reached the NFC divisional playoffs before losing to the Los Angeles Rams. Now the challenge is to make the defense match that progress. Ben Johnson is entering his second year leading the team, and the questions around this camp start with whether the roster can hold up at edge rush, defensive line, linebacker, cornerback and safety.
At edge rusher, Odeyingbo is expected to be the complement to Montez Sweat, who led the Bears with 10 sacks last year. Austin Booker was second on the team with 4.5 sacks, which is the kind of production that shows how much of the pass rush still sat on Sweat’s shoulders. Odeyingbo enters the second season of a three-year, $48 million contract he signed before the 2025 season, so this camp is about more than depth. It is about whether the Bears have found a second force off the edge that can change how opposing offenses protect.
The same kind of evaluation is happening on the defensive line and at linebacker. Veterans Grady Jarrett and Gervon Dexter are expected to need a young defensive line talent to take pressure off them, and van den Berg, a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft class, is one of the players trying to answer that call. The Bears also lost Tremaine Edmunds in free agency, signed Jack Sanborn and added Devin Bush after a standout season with the Cleveland Browns. Bush is expected to bring speed and versatility and line up next to T.J. Edwards, which gives Chicago a clearer picture at linebacker but not necessarily a finished one.
There is a similar sorting process at cornerback and safety. Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon need to get healthy, Nahshon Wright left in free agency and Stevenson is now in the final year of his contract after pulling down four interceptions as a rookie. His interception total has gone down over the past two seasons, which makes this camp a test of whether he can steady his place before the contract year becomes a larger conversation. At safety, Thieneman, a rookie first-round pick out of Oregon, arrives with Bryant described as his running mate. That pairing may become one of the cleanest answers the Bears have on defense, but training camp will decide whether it is a real answer or just another possibility on paper.
The Bears have enough proven pieces to justify optimism, but not enough certainty to avoid competition. Camp now becomes the place where that gap is narrowed, one defensive role at a time.
