The Chicago Bears have had a busy offseason rewarding some of their own with new contracts, whether they were homegrown players or recent acquisitions.

Kyler Gordon, T.J. Edwards, and Joe Thuney all received new extensions over the last few weeks, tying them to Chicago as franchise cornerstones for years to come.

With those deals now in the rearview mirror, the front office can turn the attention to other players in need of long-term security, or players that deserve to stick around beyond the 2025 season.

One of those potential players is veteran Kevin Byard, who signed a 2-year, $15 million deal with the Bears as a free agent last offseason. Byard finished his inaugural year in Chicago with a career-high 130 tackles along with seven pass deflections and two sacks.

Heading into the final year of his contract, Byard will turn 32-years-old during the season and doesn't have any security beyond 2025. Following the first day of media access at organized team activities, Byard spoke with the media and shared some of his intentions when it comes to how he would like to finish out his career.

“For me personally, I would love to be here," Byard said. "I've loved being here over the last year and going forward. This thing is year-to-year and honestly, it's probably going to be year-to-year for the rest of my career until I'm done playing."

Having that year-to-year mindset is ideal and helps make it possible to keep Byard around in Chicago until he's ready to hang the cleats up. If he can prove year-by-year he can still produce at a high level, it makes sense to keep tacking an additional year on.

"This is always going to be year-to-year," Byard added. "I put everything, my heart and my soul into this year, to this team, to this group of guys, and then we revisit those things in the offseason. I would love to be here long-term, to finish my career with the Chicago Bears. That's all I'm focused on right now.”

Reactions to the new staff and his fit in the scheme

The other side of the coin that impacts keeping Byard in the fold is how he fits with the new coaching staff led by Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.

Byard will still see a large share of defensive snaps on the field while being a locker room leader that can carry the coaches' message to the younger guys in the room. And already the new staff has shown a lot of intensity and focus.

"Just as intense as Ben Johnson," Byard said about his new defensive coordinator. "He's very detailed, I think he's a great teacher and obviously the staff that he's brought on as well. They're going to be a great addition to our defense."

Synced up ? pic.twitter.com/XaQSuBfBDm

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 22, 2025

Long-Term Positional Depth Concerns

The biggest concern on the roster positionally beyond the 2025 season is at safety, which makes Byard's comments more optimistic. The Bears do not have a single safety under contract for the 2026 season besides two 2025 UDFA signings in Tysheem Johnson and Major Burns.

Both Byard and fourth-year safety Jaquan Brisker are set to enter the season on expiring contracts, unless new deals are reached before September, although both players likely should be back in 2026, at least.

When discussing the long-term safety void, general manager Ryan Poles floated out another option to address that down the road.

"We also knew in both undrafted free agent part of the process we could get that to see if we could develop some guys into that room, as well as next year's [unrestricted free agent] process," Poles told the Kap & J Hood Show last month. "We're just going to monitor that situation but at the same time we need to be developing talent in that room."

So, it seems like the Bears are aware of this issue and have a plan in place to address it next year if no one can develop up to speed in 2025. And Byard will certainly be in those plans on a year-by-year basis.