Unlike many teams around the league, the Chicago Bears have yet to make any significant cuts from their 2025 preseason roster. With final rosters due on Aug. 26, general manager Ryan Poles is coming down to the wire with Ben Johnson's first team as head coach.
The Bears were one of the busiest teams early in the offseason, leaving them with a lot to consider in terms of their roster construction. Shortly after hiring Johnson, Chicago acquired star guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson via trade. The moves immediately addressed an offensive line that was arguably the worst in the league in 2024.
Chicago maintained the momentum in free agency, where it signed Grady Jarrett, Dayo Odeyingbo and Olamide Zaccheaus. Johnson's influence was then prominent at the 2025 NFL Draft, where the Bears used five of their eight picks on offensive players, including their first three selections.
After going just 5-12 in 2024, the Bears have made transparently wholesale changes as they enter a new era. The shift has left several returning veterans in limbo, with five returning starters in danger of losing their position at the top of the depth chart.
The Bears' goal in 2025 is clearly to build around Caleb Williams, which is what made the Johnson hire so vital to begin with. The first-year head coach has already left his mark on the organization in multiple facets and teased further adjustments coming during roster cuts.
The team did not endure a complete directional change in the offseason with Poles returning to lead the front office. However, Chicago has made it clear that the team will go in whichever direction Johnson desires. Expect the Bears to make a few noteworthy cuts as they finalize their 2025 roster.
RB Roschon Johnson
Running back was the only offensive position that Johnson did not make any significant changes to in the offseason. The Bears added 2024 All-Big 10 rusher Kyle Monangai in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft, but return D'Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson as the leaders of the group.
Swift, who worked closely with Ben Johnson on the Detroit Lions, is the clear leader. He dominated the backfield in 2024, fielding 77.4 percent of the running back carries. Roschon Johnson was a distant No. 2, taking his 55 carries for 150 rushing yards.
While the Bears were a pass-heavy team in 2024, both by design and due to an unfavorable game script, they are expected to lean more on the run game in 2025 than they have in recent years. The Lions ran the ball at the eighth-highest rate in 2024 under Ben Johnson. Chicago will likely not match those numbers, but the team's plan appears to involve its running backs more than it did last season.
The additional rushing usage will likely include more shared usage than anything else. Roschon Johnson is the de facto No. 2, but Monangai's role has increased throughout the offseason. The Bears' coaching staff raved about his physicality and grit throughout the preseason.
On paper, Monangai should not be a threat to Johnson, but he is not a typical seventh-round pick. Monangai is Rutgers' second all-time leading rusher, only behind Ray Rice. He ended his college career with 1,279 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns in 2024, earning himself first-team All-Big 10 honors above players like Jordan James, Kalel Mullings, TreVeyon Henderson, Woody Marks and Donovan Edwards.
As a gritty between-the-tackles runner, Monangai already looks like the Bears' preferred short-yardage back. That was Johnson's role in 2024, primarily due to Swift's inefficiencies in that area. Johnson was not much better and averaged just 2.7 yards per carry. Monangai is much smaller than Johnson, but is a much more aggressive runner with better pad level in the trenches.
There was a time when Johnson looked like arguably the best running back in Chicago. Unfortunately, he is now just a less effective version of Swift and does not appear to be part of the Bears' long-term plans, making him a potential victim of roster cuts.
WR Miles Boykin
Unlike running back, the Bears practically overhauled their entire receiving corps in the offseason and return just two of their top six wideouts from 2024. They subsequently added three marquee veterans in free agency by signing Olamide Zaccheaus, Devin Duvernay and Miles Boykin.
A former third-round pick, Boykin was once an intriguing prospect with elite size and contested catch ability. However, six years into his career, he is now in danger of falling out of the league entirely.
Boykin, who has just one start in the last three years, never had a realistic chance of breaking into the starting lineup in the offseason. The Bears are comfortably set with rookie Luther Burden III joining D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze at the top of the depth chart. However, Chicago potentially saw the 6-foot-3 wideout playing a key role off the bench.
Boykin has not come close to fulfilling his pre-draft potential, but he possesses a unique skill set that no other receiver on the Bears' roster can match. His sheer size and athleticism make him the biggest receiver on the team and a potentially intriguing target for Williams, especially in the red zone. He has not scored a touchdown since 2020, but Boykin was an effective goal-line weapon early in his career, scoring seven touchdowns in his first two seasons.
If there was any coach in the league who could get the most out of Boykin, the Bears were hoping that it would be Ben Johnson. That has just not seemed to be the case. Boykin seemed to be closer to the bottom of the depth chart than the top throughout the preseason, getting outplayed by undrafted free agents Jahdae Walker, JP Richardson and Maurice Alexander. Even Samori Toure, whom Chicago released on Sunday, has been more effective than Boykin in the preseason.
Perhaps Boykin's physical attributes keep him on the roster, but it seems unlikely. The Bears have too many intriguing young weapons to justify keeping an inefficient player like Boykin on their 2025 roster.
DT Andrew Billings
Within a week of signing with the Bears, Johnson hired former New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen as his defensive coordinator. With Johnson transitioning into his first head coaching role, Allen appears to have complete control of the defense. Since his hiring, Chicago has revamped its defensive line, adding former All-Pro Grady Jarrett and standout rookie Shemar Turner to its roster.
The new additions joined Gervon Dexter Sr. and Andrew Billings, who anchored the team's interior defensive line in 2024. Dexter and Billings were immediately put on notice, given the prestige Jarrett and Turner brought to the roster.
So far, Billings has clearly been one of the biggest losers of the offseason. Despite being a starter for most of his career, Billings entered the offseason off a season-ending pectoral injury in 2024. He still expected to return to the starting lineup, but could end up becoming a surprise roster cut.
The Bears ended the preseason with Jarrett, Dexter, and Billings listed as their starting interior linemen, flanked by Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo. The unofficial depth chart suggests a transition to a 3-4 defense, which would be beneficial for Billings' job security.
However, the biggest surprise came with Turner being listed as a third-stringer. Turner did not have the best start to his offseason, but he gained momentum down the stretch. The listing is a bigger indicator of how the team views Zacch Pickens, Chris Williams and Jonathan Ford, who were previously thought to be at the bottom of the totem pole.
Despite what the depth chart suggests, Turner is not a realistic cut candidate. If the Bears are going to cut one of their prominent interior linemen from their 2025 roster, it would be Billings, who has just 40 tackles and one sack in the last two years. Billings is a serviceable defensive tackle, but also the most expendable one on Chicago's roster.
