Richard Hightower just lost one of his most trusted players and leaves an unnoticed need on the Bears roster to eventually address
Former Chicago Bears running back and core special teamer Travis Homer is heading to the AFC North.
The Chicago Bears have exhausted essentially all available resources for the time being after the first two weeks of free agency, however, more moves expected to be announced to free up cap space ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft next month.
Once more space is made available, the Bears could explore some more low-level signings after the draft to round out the roster and address various positions still in need of depth.
One of those potential positions of need is already going unnoticed at running back, and the Bears just quietly lost a key contributor from the past three seasons.
RB Travis Homer signs with the Pittsburgh Steelers in free agency
Former Chicago Bears running back and core special teamer Travis Homer signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday and people might be overlooking how big of a loss this really is. Homer was one of the most trusted players under special teams coordinator Richard Hightower and totaled 582 special teams snaps for the Bears over the last three seasons.
“I could sit up here and talk about Travis Homer all day, but he’s a guy you don’t know the value of if you’re not around him every day,” Hightower said back in October.
For a team like the Bears, special teams is very important and played a clutch role in many of the team’s wins from the 2025 season. It’s a big reason why the Bears went out to re-sign guys like Elijah Hicks, Jaylon Jones, and Daniel Hardy. Letting Homer walk is a bit surprising and opens the possibility of the Bears adding a new player to the roster to fill his role.
The Bears have already been sniffing out a few different running back prospects in the draft such as Seth McGowan and Noah Whittington, both being Day 3 options with special teams potential. If the Bears aren’t able to add a back who can be a special teams contributor in the draft, there’s two free agent options worth considering as well in Dare Ogunbowale and Hassan Haskins. Bringing back Ian Wheeler could be an option as well, who’s set to make his UFL debut with the Louisville Kings.
Right now, the Bears’ running back room mainly consists of D’Andre Swift, Kyle Monangai, Roschon Johnson, and Brittain Brown. Outside of Swift and Monangai, the other two backs played a total of 138 snaps between offense and special teams. Homer played 163 snaps on special teams alone. He was a big part of that unit that the Bears will now have to find a way to replace.