The 2026 NFL Draft Sets Up Perfectly for the Bears' Biggest Weakness
The 2026 draft class overflows with explosive speed at safety and linebacker, precisely what the Bears desperately need to fix their defense.
Video Transcript
Grant Bricker here for Bears on Roundtable.
The Bears are going to have a lot of needs this off-season.
One of the, more recent ones is going to be at linebacker after Tremaine Edmunds has-- was, granted permission to seek a trade.
On top of that, there is-- was the late season injury to linebacker T.J. Edwards and now, it looks-- it's looking like that, his injury that is going to keep him out for a significant amount of time, meaning that the Bears only starting linebacker from twenty twenty-six for the most part is going to be, or from twenty twenty-five for the most part, is going to be Noah Sewell.
Then there are the, the contract situations with Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker as they are set to become free agents.
There is also a, glaring need at left tackle with the injury to Ozzie Trapillo that is going to keep him out for most of the twenty twenty-six season.
However, safety and linebacker are becoming more and more important as we head into the twenty twenty-six NFL draft.
General Manager Ryan Poles recently mentioned that, there-- that he wanted to add more speed to the Bears defense and for good reason, as we saw how crucial that speed can be for opposing, receivers against the Bears as the, the games against Green Bay Packers stand out where the Bears secondary was just simply not fast enough to keep up with the Packers receivers, and it cost them multiple times.
Luckily for the Bears, there are a lot of options on the defensive side of the ball at safety and linebacker with plenty of speed, as we saw by their forty-yard dash times.
Brothers Lorenzo and Sunny Styles both led their, respective positions at the forty-yard dash.
Lorenzo plays safety and ran a four two seven forty-yard dash, while, Sunny led linebackers with a, forty-yard dash time under four point five.
So And they were not the only ones to have good forty-yard dashes, as the likes of Dylan Fieneman, VJ Payne for the safeties and, ver-many other linebackers also had some very, really successful forty-yard dash runs.
So it's a good thing the Bears have needs at safety and linebacker as well as, in the speed department because there are a lot of options for them to choose from come April when the draft will be held in, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from April twenty-third through twenty-fifth.
So definitely a, good problem to have for the Bears.
