Chicago Bears training camp is just weeks away, with rookies reporting on July 25 and veterans on July 28, with the first practice available to the public on July 31.
This is the point in the year where everything ramps up – the beginning of the 2026 season starts at Halas Hall, position battles begin, integrating schemes on both sides of the ball, and first impressions on the coaching staff and front office begin.
There will be many players to watch out for – how did they take the six weeks off, did they get their bodies right – is their mindset in the right place and ready to compete and learn? With a 90-man roster, slowly from the first day of camp to the Aug. 30 deadline for the final 53-man roster, the evaluation period begins.
Here are the five players who have to stand out during training camp. Whether it’s building trust with the coaches and team or being called upon in a new role, eyes will be on these players a little more.
1. Kyler Gordon, CB
Everyone, whether they gave Kyler Gordon the benefit of the doubt at some point last season, is now expecting Gordon to put last season behind him and go into the season looking to be available. Before last season, Gordon had been every part of the second-round pick Chicago envisioned he’d be after drafting him in 2022. He started 14 games his rookie season, showed his versatility playing in coverage and at the line of scrimmage, and that carried into the following season.
Playing in 13 games in Year 2, Gordon followed it up with his best season as a pro in 2024, playing in 15 games, starting in 13 of them, making a career-high 75 tackles, four tackles for loss, another career-high, and five pass deflections. This earned Gordon a three-year $40 million extension, with $31.25 million guaranteed. Making him the highest-paid slot corner in the league.
With the change in coaching staff and Dennis Allen taking over as defensive coordinator, there was a plan Allen had with the versatility Gordon offered. But in a season plagued with a slew of soft tissue injuries in Gordon’s calf, hamstring, and groin, he missed 14 games and had two stints on injured reserve. Gordon was able to come back for Chicago’s two playoff games and show glimpses of what the Bears defense was missing had the emerging corner stayed healthy.
But things didn’t get better for Gordon in the two-week OTAs period just last month. Gordon was sidelined again with soft tissue injuries, and it has not only the Bears fanbase questioning his availability, but also the coaching staff on whether Gordon can be relied upon for the upcoming season and the foreseeable future.
Chicago did draft Malik Muhammad in the fourth round of this year’s draft and have already experimented with the rookie cornerback at the nickel position. There certainly won’t be any waiting around for Gordon to figure out his recurring injury, and there needs to be a backup plan in place. But all that can change if Gordon cannot only be present at Halas Hall at the start of training camp but also active and with the first team defense.
2. Braxton Jones, LT
Like last season, the left tackle position is another hot topic with the Bears that will once again catch steam from the first day of training camp until the Week 1 starters are named. Last season, Jones, Theo Benedet, and rookie Ozzy Trapilo became the three battling for Caleb Williams’ blindside. And, by the Bears’ final game against the Los Angeles Rams in the division playoff round, four players had started at left tackle.
Jones won the job out of training camp last season and started the Bears’ first four games, until he was benched for Benedet in the second quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders. Benedet went on to start eight games at the position before Trapilo took over from Week 12 through the final two minutes of the Bears vs. Packers wild-card game. With Trapilo presumably out for the season as he recovers from a ruptured patellar tendon, Chicago will go back to square one.
Jones was re-signed on a one-year deal to return. The Bears also signed former Cleveland Browns first-round pick Jedrick Wills Jr, who has 57 career starts at left tackle, to pair with Benedet and Kiran Amegadjie, who will all factor into the competition.
But all eyes will be on Jones, who has 44 career starts at the position, won the coaching staff over a year ago, and a $10 million one-year deal shows the expectation the franchise has in Jones to be the long-term starter for a unit that was top 10 in the league last season.
3. Austin Booker, DE
This is good pressure that Austin Booker will have on him throughout training camp. One, because expectations from the start were never that high for him to begin with.
When Chicago drafted Booker in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, they had just four picks in that class total, and took punter Tory Taylor in the fourth round. General Manager Ryan Poles traded back into the draft to take Booker and has since become a project.
But last season, even after starting the season on injured reserve, Booker came back and flashed some potential. Playing in 10 games and starting in nine the rest of the season, Booker had 4.5 sacks and five tackles for loss.
The emergence of Booker will obviously be a huge plus for a Bears pass rush that was nonexistent last season, aside from Montez Sweat. And if things don’t work out with Booker, or he never takes that next step, it only falls on the front office for not more aggressively approaching the edge rusher group.
4. Dayo Odeyingbo, DE
Back to the defensive line and edge rusher position group, Dayo Odeyingbo will walk into Halas Hall with expectations given to him by Chicago media and the coaching staff. But he’s already off to a good start. Odeyingbo was back for Bears’ OTAs during the two weeks and already had coach Ben Johnson praising his ability to be back and ready to go as fast as he could.
Last season, Odeyingbo tore his Achilles in Week 9, leaving him sidelined for the rest of the season and with a cap hit of $17 million, unable to provide pass-rush help. It was a questionable signing to the outside world when Chicago signed Odeyingbo to a three-year, $48 million contract with $32 million guaranteed.
He only has 17.5 career sacks, and in his last 25 games, he has only four sacks. He mustered just one sack in eight games with the Bears last year. If Odeyingbo truly is back, and ahead of schedule, he will bring much-needed depth to the pass rusher group. But that might not be enough. With his massive cap hit, the expectation will be for Odeyingbo to play into a starting stop and produce consistently all season.
5. Rome Odunze, WR
It’s a good thing to have a list of pass-catching options, especially when Ben Johnson is the guy calling plays and Caleb Williams is the quarterback. But what helps is when your former No. 9 overall pick plays to his draft positioning. Last season, Odunze was the guy from the start for Williams, catching five touchdown passes in four games. But then there was a decline amid injury.
Odunze suffered a foot injury that at first was described as nothing serious but then caused him to miss the final five regular-season games, leaving him not at 100% in the two playoff games. Later announced that Odunze had a stress fracture in his left foot, he opted against surgery, which then caused calluses to develop in the natural healing process, creating what he called “new normal.”
“This is my new normal,” Odunze said. “My new normal is what I am growing into. I don’t think that’s anything that’s going to prohibit me or keep me from making plays.”
An alarming sentence to hear from the highly touted receiver, and possibly a scary response to hear, Odunze explained.
“It’s not from a standpoint that I’m always in pain,” Odunze said. “But, the way my foot broke, there’s a callus in there that creates a different type of foot structure with those bones and different things that shift things around.”
Regardless, this puts a little heightened alertness on Odunze, but for now, only time will tell if it affects his game. With DJ Moore now gone, Odunze is expected to play a bigger role in the offense and possibly into the No. 1 receiver role.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: 5 Chicago Bears with the most to prove during training camp
Reporting by Preston Zbroszczyk , Bears Wire / Bears Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Preston Zbroszczyk , Bears Wire | USA TODAY Network
