8 Bears Entering Their Final Season With Chicago

The Bears look to be building something special in the Windy City with the arrival of rookies Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze as well as veterans Keenan Allen, D'Andre Swift, Gerald Everett, and Kevin Byard. Most of the core young players are signed to deals into the future but there are a handful with deals expiring this year or soon after. Some guys simply may not be in the future plans for the team.

Overall, the roster is in a good spot with no real high-level players going into a contract year outside of Keenan Allen. Poles has been able to lock down his guys dishing out extensions to Cole Kmet, Jaylon Johnson, Cairo Santos, Montez Sweat, and most recently D.J. Moore. With all this being said, this is still the NFL and lots of things change from year to year. Let's take a look at eight players entering their final season with Chicago.

1. Jack Sanborn, LB

Jack Sanborn has become a fan-favorite since joining the team in 2022 after going undrafted out of Wisconsin. When Roquan Smith was traded to the Ravens, Sanborn stepped up and filled those shoes about as good as an undrafted guy can.

Ryan Poles and the Bears brought in two big-name linebackers a year ago in Tremaine Edmunds and T.J Edwards, who now are cornerstones of Eberflus' defense. Sanborn still played in all 17 games in 2023 but with the league becoming more and more pass-happy, defenses more times than not have their nickel back on the field and not their 3rd linebacker.

This is not a case of letting a guy walk because he cannot play, this is a case of the Bears already having $20.8M invested in Edmunds and Edwards, so it is not likely they re-sign Sanborn who will garner a lot of attention in free agency. I think we see the Bears let him test the free agency waters and a team makes an offer that the Bears simply cannot afford to match given the money already invested in their linebacking corps.