As we do every year, we take a look at the Bears’ first-round pick and the different positions the team needs, and what would make sense for the team to do. As a reminder, I will go through multiple positional cases for the 25th pick, making the case does not necessarily mean I believe this is what the Bears should do, simply laying out the reasons as to why this pick makes sense.
It’s time to talk about why the Bears need to take an edge with the 25th pick.
Look, there’s no doubt about it, the Bears’ worst position group in 2025 was the defensive line. I don’t think there is even an argument for any other group. The Bears had one of the worst-performing defensive lines in the entire league, and, to this point, they’ve made no effort to upgrade it.
Perhaps they already invested in Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo, and despite a poor return on those investments, they decided not to invest anything further into the line. Perhaps they don’t want to spend significant dollars knowing that Darnell Wright and Caleb Williams ‘ extensions are both coming down in the next 14 months. Whatever the reason, the Bears chose to do very little to the defensive line, and now they’ve left themselves a situation where they have no choice but to address it in the draft.
The issue with the Bears’ defense is that you can talk about the need for safety, the need for corner, there are plenty of needs, but the hit rate on those positions is far higher after day one than it is with Edge. You simply don’t find many high-quality edge rushers outside of round one, so while you may be sitting here going, they can get by with Montez Sweat and Austin Booker, you still know they need more depth and talent in their defensive end room, and they just are most likely not going to find it after pick 25.
I think Bears fans would pretty much unanimously agree that Austin Booker is a better Edge than Dayo Odeyingbo at this point. Put money aside, the Bears need to play their best players, and if Odeyingbo becomes an expensive cheerleader playing limited defensive snaps per game, that’s what he needs to be. He wasn’t effective last year, and with a second Achilles tendon rupture, it’s a safe bet that he will be, at best, the same level of effectiveness that he was last year.
If we are being brutally honest, Odeyingbo played like an EDGE4. Booker played like an EDGE3. Sweat probably was more like an EDGE2, but he’s your EDGE1 based on where you are at now.
If you want an impact player that can potentially start, but be no worse than your EDGE3 this season, you can’t wait; you need to pounce in round 1. You can worry about the secondary on day 2, but on day 1, you need to focus on the defensive line, and you need to focus on the outside.
When you listen to the draft experts, it feels like there are going to be 7 or 8 Edge players that go in round 1. There are some names towards the back half of that list that make some sense for Chicago. Missouri’s Zion Young, Clemson’s TJ Parker, and Auburn’s Keldric Faulk, to name a few.
Bring in one of these guys, let him compete in camp with Austin Booker for the EDGE2 position (and technically Dayo Odeyingbo too, whenever he’s healthy enough to play), and may the best man win. Hopefully, you have someone who can contribute as a rookie, and the arrow is pointing up for 2027.
Edge is a premium position, and the Bears need one. You can’t take a player for the secondary in round one when the odds are much higher that you can find NFL starting caliber players in the secondary in the later rounds than you can at Edge.