{"id":236022,"date":"2025-06-08T12:36:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T16:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=236022"},"modified":"2025-06-08T13:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T17:12:24","slug":"5-bears-players-must-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/06\/08\/5-bears-players-must-step-up\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Chicago Bears Players Who Must Step Up Next Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all the amazing additions the Chicago Bears<\/a> have made to the roster over the offseason, there are still question marks at certain positions. Whether it’s a lack of depth or a projected starter with some unknowns, some Bears players must step up in a big way next season.<\/p>\n

5 Bears Players Who Must Step Up<\/h2>\n

LB Tremaine Edmunds<\/h3>\n

It hasn’t felt like a worthwhile investment, giving Tremaine Edmunds<\/a> a four-year, $72 million deal.<\/a> For one, T.J. Edwards<\/a> has outperformed him every season on a cheaper deal, and the premise was that Edmunds would come in and fill the void left by Roquan Smith.<\/a> He had a disappointing 59.2 overall grade<\/a> by Pro Football Focus (PFF), which ranked 119th out of a possible 189 linebackers. The hope is that a change at defensive coordinator and new additions will help guide Edmunds back in the right direction.<\/p>\n

RB D’Andre Swift<\/h3>\n

With all the talk over the offseason over which running back the Bears should draft, it ended with the team drafting Rutgers’ Kyle Monangai<\/a> in the seventh round. It’s a great situation for D’Andre Swift,<\/a> but now the pressure is on him to perform, and in a huge way, with a revamped offensive line and an offensive guru at head coach. If not, there will be some serious conversations about moving on from him after next season.<\/p>\n

DE Dayo Odeyingbo<\/h3>\n

The Bears’ only major addition in the pass rushing department was signing former Indianapolis Colts<\/a> edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo<\/a> to a three-year, $48 million contract.<\/a> The Bears struggled getting to the quarterback last season and desperately needed to bring in someone opposite Montez Sweat.<\/a> Odeyingbo offers versatility with the ability to play both inside and outside, but he will have to put up a huge season for the Bears to have success on defense.<\/p>\n

S Jaquan Brisker<\/h3>\n
\"Jaquan
Oct 6, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears safety Jaquan Brisker (9) celebrates a defensive stop against the Carolina Panthers during the first quarter at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This isn’t about his play on the field, but rather, being available to be on the field. Jaquan Brisker<\/a> dealt with a serious concussion that sidelined him for 12 games last season, and he said he’s not concerned<\/a> about his long history of concussions.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to continue to play the same way,” Brisker said in a press conference. “That was my first time really having a contact injury. He hit his head on my neck, so he kind of just hit his helmet on the right spot. Really just moving on from that.”<\/p>\n

Brisker is heading into the final year of his rookie deal<\/a> after suffering a concussion in each of his three seasons with the Bears, and the hope is he’s able to avoid that problem next season.<\/p>\n

RG Jonah Jackson<\/h3>\n

The Bears had a revolving door at right guard for the past few seasons, and the hope is that trading for Jonah Jackson<\/a> fixes that problem. He had a down year with the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> last season, but going back to guard after struggling at center last season should help him return to form, especially playing in between Drew Dalman<\/a> and Darnell Wright.<\/a> If Jackson can anchor the right guard spot, it should help elevate the entire offense.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Lon Horwedel – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite all the additions this offseason, these five Chicago Bears players must step up in a big way next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4976,"featured_media":236050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,36],"tags":[7403,6194,8025,9084,6185,3540],"class_list":["post-236022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bears","category-nfl-news","tag-chicago-bears-news","tag-dandre-swift","tag-dayo-odeyingbo","tag-jaquan-brisker","tag-jonah-jackson","tag-tremaine-edmunds"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236022"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236138,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236022\/revisions\/236138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}