Ben Johnson’s praise for an underrated veteran hints the Bears may be hiding a secret weapon most are overlooking
The Chicago Bears have plenty of exciting young playmakers, but we shouldn’t overlook the impact veteran wide receiver Kalif Raymond can bring offensively early in the season.
The Chicago Bears have plenty of exciting young offensive playmakers to watch this upcoming season between Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III, Cole Kmet, and even the two rookies in Sam Roush and Zavion Thomas.
Fans are right to be excited for those players after the contributions they had offensively last season and the early returns the two rookies have had throughout the spring and first few days of the summer.
The one player flying well under the radar is the team’s veteran wide receiver addition and it’s not going to take long for him to start generating some buzz as well.
Chicago Bears HC Ben Johnson has been thrilled with what Kalif Raymond has shown on offense
Kalif Raymond signed with the Bears on a one-year deal after multiple years with the Detroit Lions and is someone Johnson and WRs coach Antwaan Randle El became close with. As soon as Raymond became an option on the market, the Bears moved quick to bring him in to replace the veteran presence after losing DJ Moore.
Raymond is more than just a locker room leader and more than just a returner on special teams than most fans are expecting. In reality, the Bears will use him much like they used Olamide Zaccheaus early last season.
Zaccheaus ended up becoming a top target throughout the offseason, something that continued early in the regular season until Burden started getting more involved in the gameplan. Fans should expect a similar process with Raymond in the Zaccheaus role and Thomas in the Burden role, so to speak.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday ahead of mandatory minicamp, Johnson added more insight to what Raymond has brought so far.
“You wouldn’t know looking at him right now that he’s 31 going on 32. He has got this vertical push to his game where he comes raging off the football and, if you’re a DB, you can’t help but back up,” Johnson explained. “That carries over with all of the routes that he runs. I think it’s been really good for our young route runners to see because that’s really what we want to see across the board.”
Don’t sleep on Kalif Raymond in 2026
Fans in Chicago might not have known what to fully expect out of Raymond this season on offense and just penciled him in as a returner and gadget-guy. Johnson had a clear idea of what he expected to see and Raymond has still been blowing him away.
“He is exactly what we hoped for when he came into the building,” Johnson added. “It’s as good as I’ve seen him in the spring based on my time with him over the last five years. He’s got fresh legs, he’s hungry, he’s highly motivated right now. There’s a lot that he can do in the offensive game. He’s not a gadget guy. He’s unique in his ability to have enough speed to take it over the top – make defenses hurt that way – but also inside the numbers and outside the numbers, he’s got elite quickness. You get the ball in his hands and he’s excellent run after the catch. He’s very very versatile and I think he’s going to be a huge part of what we do.”
For fans still not fully convinced after that, just wait until training camp comes around next month because it sounds very similar to the praise Zaccheaus got last offseason. And this time around, Raymond is someone with a lot more trust and experience in this offense and I’m sure he will be used quite a bit once we see more team drills in July.