The Bears 2025 Free Agency Thread

[Lake Shore Drive]

I really should have started this thread before the draft thread, being that free agency will take place before the draft. Unfortunately this season confirmed we could improvement within pretty much every unit on the team, with perhaps no greater need than the OL. It's been mentioned in a number of articles that aside from Darnell Wright at RT, just about every other spot on the line is up for grabs. Assuming Poles will not pursue Jenkins and/or if Jones is not the answer at LT, then let's face it, there's no way to fill four spots just thru the draft. He'll have to ink at least a couple of free agents, and likely starters at that. And let's keep in mind that there are other positions of need, either as starters or adding depth that we'll need to fill this offseason.

Here's a list of all the pending free agents from just the current wildcard playoff teams, courtesy of Bears Wire:

NFL free agency: 63 targets in wild-card playoffs

Here are some pending free agents the Bears could target from the 2025 NFL wild-card playoffs.

bearswire.usatoday.com

Without any kind of a dive into this group, it's a fair guess to say many of these FAs are either past their prime or if not, then will most likely be re-signed by their respective teams. And of course it's not a complete list, but at least a starting point.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

An early take on some potential FA signings:

3 free agents Bears must sign to get the most out of Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams

Now that the Bears have Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams together, they should sign these key free agents to get the most out of the offense.

beargoggleson.com

Of the three, Will Fries is the most intriguing. Naturally, he'd have to pass what I'd expect to be a tough physical, but if he did, that could be a sneaky-good signing. Marquise Brown has some serious afterburners and Lawdy knows we could use such speed in the WR group - let's face it, Tyler Scott, our only real scooter of the bunch, has been a complete bust. He has a year left on his contract, but it's chump change relatively speaking, and for all we know the Bears just might cut him. Brown is still relatively young entering his age 28 season. I'm not all that confident that the Bears will re-sign Allen and I'd prefer not to use one of our higher draft picks on a WR. Scherff has had a solid career, even if he's now on the downside of it.

 

[Jiddy]

An early take on some potential FA signings:

3 free agents Bears must sign to get the most out of Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams

Now that the Bears have Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams together, they should sign these key free agents to get the most out of the offense.

beargoggleson.com

Of the three, Will Fries is the most intriguing. Naturally, he'd have to pass what I'd expect to be a tough physical, but if he did, that could be a sneaky-good signing. Marquise Brown has some serious afterburners and Lawdy knows we could use such speed in the WR group - let's face it, Tyler Scott, our only real scooter of the bunch, has been a complete bust. He has a year left on his contract, but it's chump change relatively speaking, and for all we know the Bears just might cut him. Brown is still relatively young entering his age 28 season. I'm not all that confident that the Bears will re-sign Allen and I'd prefer not to use one of our higher draft picks on a WR. Scherff has had a solid career, even if he's now on the downside of it.

The center sounds like a similar situation to the Connor Williams guy last offseason….who retired on his team midseason.

 

[DJ Fieri]

Gotta fix the OL and add some to the defense.

 

[richig07]

I really should have started this thread before the draft thread, being that free agency will take place before the draft. Unfortunately this season confirmed we could improvement within pretty much every unit on the team, with perhaps no greater need than the OL. It's been mentioned in a number of articles that aside from Darnell Wright at RT, just about every other spot on the line is up for grabs. Assuming Poles will not pursue Jenkins and/or if Jones is not the answer at LT, then let's face it, there's no way to fill four spots just thru the draft. He'll have to ink at least a couple of free agents, and likely starters at that. And let's keep in mind that there are other positions of need, either as starters or adding depth that we'll need to fill this offseason.

Here's a list of all the pending free agents from just the current wildcard playoff teams, courtesy of Bears Wire:

NFL free agency: 63 targets in wild-card playoffs

Here are some pending free agents the Bears could target from the 2025 NFL wild-card playoffs.

bearswire.usatoday.com

Without any kind of a dive into this group, it's a fair guess to say many of these FAs are either past their prime or if not, then will most likely be re-signed by their respective teams. And of course it's not a complete list, but at least a starting point.

The lineman make sense.

Brown does as well. I like Allen and hope we retain him. I actually think he has quite a bit left - despite not posting the numbers. That being said, we've lacked a vertical threat in this offense for quite some time. You have to go back to early Darnell Mooney to find that.

One of the most frustrating parts of the Bears offense for quite some time is the lack of explosiveness. Scoring a touchdown requires so many things to go right. We must methodically pick up first downs, move the chains, avoid negative plays, avoid penalties, convert multiple 3rd downs, etc. It seems like we NEVER, EVER break big plays.