The Chicago Bears enter into the 2026 regular season with a lot of questions on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, Ben Johnson’s unit will be a juggernaut and one of the highest-scoring units in the league. Defensively, there are real concerns.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen made a strong effort this offseason to bring in “his guys” while sending multiple former starters out of the door. The only position he didn’t address was defensive end, much to the disappointment of a lot of fans.

However, ESPN believes it’s something that could still happen in the coming weeks and I’m starting to get on board with that idea based on the current state of the defense.

ESPN still sees the Chicago Bears making a splash for a top pass rusher in 2026

You may think time is running out to make a real addition with 11 days until the regular season opener. However, Ryan Poles has been aggressive before at the trade deadline when he flipped a second-round pick for Montez Sweat. ESPN thinks it can happen again to acquire a top edge rusher opposite Sweat.

“Bears GM Ryan Poles has been an active and aggressive trader in his time with the team, and he’ll turn over every rock he can looking for an impact player up front. The Bears’ health issues on defense might be more concentrated on the back end, but improving the pass rush would help the secondary, too.” – ESPN’s Dan Graziano

Allen’s entire plan this offseason to improve his defense was to upgrade the speed in the back seven and give the players better coaching on the defensive front. It’s true that pass rush and pass coverage go hand-in-hand and I understood Allen’s logic once all of the pieces came together. The problem now is that those pieces are falling apart.

Chicago’s top free agent signing, safety Coby Bryant, will miss the majority (if not all) of the 2026 season after suffering a knee injury and he’s far from the only injury concerns in the secondary. And don’t even get me started on the Kyler Gordon situation.

Now, the Bears head into Week 1 with injury concerns in the backend and the same group of pass rushers up-front, and yet we’re supposed to believe the unit will improve in 2026? I follow ESPN’s logic here and can see the Bears making a splash by the trade deadline to try and jumpstart the defense before it becomes the main area holding this team back.

Maxx Crosby? Josh Sweat? Who should the Bears target if they actually follow through with this?

Heading into the regular season, the Bears’ edge room consists of Sweat, Dayo Odeyingbo, and Austin Booker (who’s week-to-week with a groin injury) as your main starters with Jamree Kromah and Daniel Hardy as depth.

The Bears also have Marcus Davenport on the practice squad working to get into game shape and 2025 second-round pick Shemar Turner rehabbing on the PUP from a torn ACL.

It’s not the best group on paper and the Bears will be asking a lot out of Odeyingbo and Booker (who needs to prove he can be healthy) to be consistent pass rushers to avoid teams double-teaming Sweat all game. Adding in a top edge rusher via trade could fix things, but it won’t be cheap.

The top names in that conversation remain Maxx Crosby and Josh Sweat. Crosby already got dealt for two first-round picks before failing his physical and can regenerate trade interest once he gets on the field and proves he’s fully healthy, but the cost will remain just as high. As for Sweat, the cost is much cheaper and projected to be at-most a second-round pick, similar capital Poles spent on another pass rusher named Sweat.

At this point, I’m not ruling anything out. If the Bears’ defense comes out of the gate flat and causes this team to lose games, Poles will have no choice but to take a big swing before letting that concern tank an entire promising season.