There has been a recent run of articles urging the Chicago Bears to sign a free agent or trade for an edge rusher before the 2026 season.
This is due to Bears fans growing frustrated with the defense's pass rush last year. They had 33 sacks in 17 regular season games, with only six teams having fewer than they did.
To many, that is a massive problem that is not going to get better as fans roll into the 2026 season. Clearly, that doesn't matter to the Bears as they believe in their edge rushers.
Bears fans need to accept that the team won't get an edge rusher
Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby is back in the rumor mill with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers in conversations for him. While many Bears fans would love to have Crosby on the team, that trade will never happen. Poles is not about to give up a first-round pick when the team has had a great run of selecting guys in that round who become impact players right away.
Free agent Joey Bosa is another name that has been brought up as someone the Bears should sign. Chicago needs an every-down edge rusher who can do the same thing that Montez Sweat can do, and with Bosa's injury history, he is just not capable of being that guy anymore.
The Bears have also invested nearly $150 million between Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo, so the last thing they want to do is spend more money on edge rushers. They are trying to get Odeyingbo to live up to his $48 million contract after a bad first season for them with one sack in eight games and a season-ending injury.
Austin Booker is another key component to this whole thing, as the Bears truly believe he could be a potential starter in the future. Booker racked up 4.5 sacks in 10 games last year as he bounced back from his early-season injury to play well late in the year. He showed enough potential that Year 3 will be the year he breaks out.
Poles has to try to justify the money he has spent on edge rusher and the selections he has made over the last three years. For him, this is about proving that he was right about it as well as trying to save money, so the Bears don't have to make it work with what they have. Chicago only has $8.2 million of cap space going into the 2026 season, so that's not even enough to truly bring in a top talent like Crosby, as contracts for stellar edge rushers are going for over $10 million for one year.
Read more: Former Bears RB cashed in on UFL opportunity with NFL contract
The world can try to tell Poles all they want who they should go after, but it doesn't matter. Chicago is staying put with what they've got, and they will live with the consequences, whether or not that haunts them in the future.
Add us as a preferred source on Google