Chicago Bears NFC North

"Yesterday, he had numerous explosive plays," Johnson continued. "I'm really happy with him." Burden has had one of the biggest hype trains of the offseason after Chicago traded DJ Moore to the Bills back in March. As a rookie last season, Burden averaged 2.69 yards per route run, the highest mark for a first-year player since 2016, and only Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba posted better yards-per-route numbers in 2025. With Moore out of the picture, Burden is expected to play in all two-wide sets alongside Rome Odunze this season. In one of the league's more explosive offenses, Burden's arrow is pointing upward in a big way.

While with the Colts last summer, Ahmed suffered a serious ankle injury during training camp when he was brought down with a hip-drop tackle. He missed the entire 2025 season but is now healthy and ready to compete for a job in the Chicago backfield. The 27-year-old has 593 career rushing yards and five touchdowns on 163 carries across 38 regular-season games. He can also play special teams.

Johnson was a seventh-round pick by the Packers in the 2023 Draft and has appeared in 21 career regular-season games, logging 29 tackles (20 solo) and four pass breakups, including one interception. He'll compete for a reserve role with Chicago.

Miller spent the last two seasons with the Steelers after spending the first four years of his NFL career with the Buccaneers, with a one-season stint with Atlanta sandwiched in between. He didn't see much work in the Steelers' offense, and he finished the 2025 regular season with only nine catches (on 14 targets) for 62 yards across 13 games. Rome Odunze and Luther Burden are the clear top wideouts for the Bears, so Miller will be competing for offensive snaps against Kalif Raymond, Zavion Thomas and Jahdae Walker.

Kelly ended his collegiate career at Michigan State, totaling 47 receptions for 626 yards and two touchdowns through 12 games with the Spartans in 2025. The wide receiver also earned second-team All-Conference USA honors at Middle Tennessee State in 2024 as a punt returner. If his game can translate to the NFL level, his special-teams experience could make him a valuable depth piece for the Bears.

Plascencia made 87.8 percent of his field-goal attempts (36-for-41) in his last three seasons at San Diego State. The kicker was 19-for-23 in 2025 and was likely brought in to keep long-time Bears kicker Cairo Santos on his game ahead of the season. Santos' track record of consistency means his job is likely not in danger, and there is a good chance Plascencia will either move on from the Bears or shift to the practice squad by the start of the regular season.

Roush (6-foot-6, 267 pounds) is a massive tight end and moves well for his build (4.7-second 40-yard dash, 38.5-inch vertical, 126-inch broad jump), but his short arms (30 and 5/8 inches) were a hindrance and a plausible explanation for his poor pass-catching production at Stanford. Athletic as he is, Roush projects more as a blocker than a receiver at the NFL level, and that's even before you account for the fact that Colston Loveland is obviously the featured pass-catching tight end for Chicago's indefinite future.

Jones is light (6-foot-3, 299 pounds) and even more so has short arms (30 and 3/4 inches), but in literally every other regard the Iowa product is a blue-chip center. Despite his technically smallish build, there's very little concern about Jones translating at the next level. That's in large part due to his rare athleticism -- it's a lot easier to deal with short arms when you run a 4.9-second 40 with strong jumps and agility testing. Jones should be at least an average starting NFL center soon or immediately.

The Bears sent the Bills two seventh-round picks to move up and take van den Berg. A six-year collegiate athlete, van den Berg spent his final two seasons at Georgia Tech, starting 20 of 26 games and producing 67 tackles, 16.0 tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks. He was a late bloomer but managed to earn All-ACC honors in his final season before running a 4.94 40-yard dash at 6-foot-3, 310 pounds at his pro day. There's room for him to grow with that level of athleticism, and the 2025 tape showed a player with the requisite skills to potentially earn a role in the NFL.

Muhammad (6-feet, 182 pounds) is perhaps on the smaller side for a boundary corner, but the former Texas standout has good reach (32 and 3/8-inch arms) for press purposes and his 4.42-second 40 demonstrates enough recovery speed to buy the idea of Muhammad starting down the road. He might be able to put some heat on Tyrique Stevenson for the second boundary corner role behind Jaylon Johnson as soon as this year.

Thieneman would have been a justifiable selection somewhere in the top 20, so the Bears jumped at the chance to add the speedy safety with the 25th pick. Thieneman (6-feet, 201 pounds) was outrageously productive as a true freshman and sophomore starter at Purdue (2023-2024), accumulating triple-digit tackles in both seasons and intercepting six passes in the first season. Thieneman almost made it three seasons in a row with triple-digit tackles, but he finished with 'only' 96 tackles in his one season with Oregon (2025). With a 4.35-second 40 and 41-inch vertical, Thieneman showed he's a top-tier athlete in addition to a skilled safety.

Loveland's role expanded significantly down the stretch in his rookie season, as the 2025 first-round pick caught 28 of 48 targets for 378 yards and two touchdowns over Chicago's last four games, two of which came in the playoffs. He suffered a concussion late in the Bears' NFC divisional-round loss to the Rams, but Loveland's comments indicate he has recovered from that injury and is ready to build on his momentum from last season in a Bears offense that traded away wide receiver DJ Moore earlier this offseason. Moore finished second on the team in receiving yards behind Loveland during the 2025 regular season.