Check out our final Chicago Bears roundtable before training camp starts!
Our guy Jacob Infante shared his Chicago Bears offseason superlatives on his Twitter page, and then he expounded on those selections for us in this article. But our WCG team wanted to get in on the fun by doing our own version that we’re rolling out in this roundtable series. After checking out what we had to say, share yours in the comments section.
Yesterday’s topic was Best Move, so naturally, today’s topic is…
Worst Move
Ryan Droste: I’m not crazy about the lack of attention to the RB room. I would have liked to have seen Poles and Johnson draft a running back earlier in the draft, preferably within the first four rounds.
Josh Sunderbruch: I tend to dislike the moves Poles doesn’t make more than the ones he does, but I struggle to find Luther Burden to be anything other than a redundant pick. There’s only one football, and I’m not convinced that Burden was the best use of a Top 50 pick with how this team is configured.
Gary Baugher Jr.: Dayo Odeyingbo. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel like for a position of need, this did not move the needle as much as I wanted. Sweat’s production fell off a cliff in 2024, and that was mainly due in part to not having a viable Edge threat opposite him.
Sam Householder: The biggest gripe is perhaps that they didn’t do enough to address the defensive line. Dayo is a bet on young upside without a ton of proof. Outside of that… not great.
Johnathan Wood: There are a number of strong candidates here (extending TJ Edwards, overpaying Grady Jarrett, cutting DeMarcus Walker to give 3x as much money to Dayo Odeyingbo, not having an adequate 3rd LB on the roster), but my choice for worst is failing to address interior OL depth. The Bears replaced all three interior OL starters this offseason, but their depth at the position is scary. Ryan Bates is the presumed top backup, assuming his shoulder arthritis improves to the point he can play (I’m not convinced it will). Nobody else on the roster is somebody I would feel comfortable putting in a game, and the starters are either aging (Joe Thuney is 32) or have significant injury histories (Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson missed 11 and 18 games, respectively, over the last 2 years). I worry that the interior could turn from a clear strength into a glaring weakness in a hurry, and it would have been an easy fix to cut Bates, who had no dead money, and spend that $4 million on a healthy player who could be a capable backup.
Lester A. Wiltfong Jr.: I wasn’t sure which direction I’d go here until Jonathan mentioned interior o-line depth. Ryan Bates, who has been injured for a while, is the most experienced option. Jordan McFadden has two 2023 starts in his two-year career, and the other reserves have never started an NFL game.
Bryan Orenchuk: Passing on a RB in the 2nd and 4th rounds. Hard to have Ben Johnson as my favorite move while also questioning his first selections as Head Coach, but Ryan Poles is the GM, so this is more of a gripe with him. Time will tell if Ozzy Trapilo, Shemar Turner, and Ruben Hyppolite will be difference makers at the next level. But will they be even bigger difference makers than RJ Harvey, Kaleb Johnson, or Jaydon Blue? All three of those players could have been had instead of the three aforementioned Bears selections above. That was hard to swallow.
Mongo Peanut: Not finding Safety depth. Between Brisker’s concussions and Byard’s age, the Bears are a plausible scenario away from starting Elijah Hicks and Jonathan Owens on the back end. That’s not going to go well against Jefferson, Jameson Williams, and the first Packers receiver that learns how to catch a deep pass.
TJ Starman: It’s way too early for me to give up on a signing since, you know, there hasn’t been a game played yet this season. But, since we’re moving forward with this exercise, I have to say that I am feeling worse and worse about the contract given to Dayo Odeyingbo. The expectation shouldn’t be that Dayo becomes a superstar opposite Montez Sweat, but he’s certainly being paid to be productive, and I keep getting sent spiraling after remembering that D-Rob was getting snaps ahead of him in minicamp.
Donald Gooch: While I like acquiring Jonah Jackson for RG – paying his full contract and giving him an extension seemed questionable in my mind.
Jeff Berckes: Hey, it’s July, we’re all happy, why are we going to dwell on the less than perfect? I have to pick an answer… ummm, something about the stadium not getting figured out? Let’s just move on to someone else.
What do you think the worst move of the offseason was?