Towards the end of last month, Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports reported that league insiders believe the Chicago Bears would be suitors for Jacksonville Jaguars standout running back Travis Etienne if he were to make it to free agency.
The idea of Etienne joining the Bears is be intriguing, though it's also complicated. The Bears had one of the top running games this season, led by D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai.
Swift turned in his second 1K rushing campaign, as he ran for a career-high 1,087 yards and nine touchdowns on 223 carries. He also added 34 receptions (48 targets) for 299 yards and a TD.
Bears fans couldn’t ask for anything more from Swift. That said, Chicago could part ways with the veteran, who has a potential out in his contract for 2026. If the Bears were to cut Swift, they would save $7.5 million in cap space and only have $1.3 million in dead money, per OverTheCap.com
That would be the first step towards entertaining the idea of Etienne. The next step would be to see if the standout RB would want to reunite with his former coach, Press Taylor, who got a title upgrade on Sunday. According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the Bears are promoting Taylor to offensive coordinator.
Bears' Press Taylor Hire Just Adds to Chicago's Travis Etienne Buzz
Taylor spent this season as the pass game coordinator and will be taking over for Declan Doyle, who departed to become the OC for the Baltimore Ravens.
Before Taylor joined Johnson in the Windy City, he was the offensive coordinator for three years in Jacksonville, where he had the chance to work closely with Etienne. In the three seasons that Etienne had with Taylor, the former first-round pick recorded back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing campaigns in 2022 (1,125 yards, still his career high to date) and 2023 (1,008 yards, 11 TDs).
However, Etienne’s production took a major step back in 2024 (558 rushing yards and 2 TDs), which was a microcosm of the entire Jaguars’ offense under Taylor in that last season.
That said, Taylor has always been a fan of Etienne’s game and a believer that he can carry a huge workload, which is required by most teams’ lead backs. This season with the Jaguars, Etienne had 296 touches (second-most in his career) for 1,399 yards and 13 total touchdowns.
Adding Etienne, who is the same age as Swift but provides a bit of a different profile, would give the Bears a new dynamic in the backfield. But we have to expect that the Jags won’t let him go easily, given that he was Trevor Lawrence’s teammate in college. Also, according to Spotrac, Etienne’s calculated market value is only a two-year, $13.6 million deal with an AVV of $6.8 million.
That wouldn’t be too rich for the Bears’ pockets, but Jacksonville could easily pay that as well. Chicago would have to do some maneuvering to make room for Etienne, too, while also trying to re-sign a few key free agents on the defensive side of the ball.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if we get any more buzz involving Etienne and the Bears as free agency is on the horizon, and Chicago must do whatever it takes to capitalize on this window they have with Caleb Williams.