The Bears' Pass-Rush Depth Is a Ticking Clock, and Training Camp Just Started It

Here is the uncomfortable arithmetic Chicago cannot talk its way around: Montez Sweat is the only defensive end on this roster who logged meaningful snaps in 2025, he is playing on an expiring contract, and the two men competing to be his backup cannot both be counted on right now. That is not a depth chart. That is a single point of failure dressed up as a rotation.

The Booker-Odeyingbo battle getting attention in Halas Hall this week is real and worth watching, but the framing around it slightly misses the point. The question is not simply who wins the job — it is whether either of them can function as a credible second rusher behind Sweat, because the depth chart currently shows no one else with proven playing time at the position. Odeyingbo, who signed a significant deal, has been questionable and has struggled in early camp. Booker made genuine strides in 2025 and is pushing hard for snaps. If Booker wins this competition cleanly, that is a mild positive. If Odeyingbo's early camp struggles persist, Chicago is functionally running one defensive end into a 17-game season with playoff ambitions.

The reason this matters beyond the position itself is what it means for the Sweat negotiation. When you have no viable depth behind your starting edge rusher, your leverage in contract talks evaporates. Sweat knows what the depth chart looks like. His representation knows it too. The Bears' ability to play hardball on an extension — or to absorb losing him — depends entirely on whether Booker or Odeyingbo can credibly fill that void. Right now, the honest answer is that neither has demonstrated they can.

And the edge position does not exist in isolation. Chicago's cornerback room is similarly thin — just one player with meaningful snaps at CB, against a standard rotation that typically runs three deep. Jaylon Johnson's production last season was a significant concern at the starter level. The secondary and the pass rush are supposed to work in concert; pressure covers up coverage lapses, and good corners buy time for rushers to get home. When both units are operating with skeleton crews, the failures compound each other rather than cancel out.

This is where the 2025 season's underlying numbers become genuinely unsettling context. The Bears finished 11-6, but their point differential suggested they should have been closer to a .536 team — they won games at a close-game rate that history says is very hard to repeat. Drop their final two games of the season after a strong mid-season run, and the fragility of that formula becomes visible. A team that wins tight games needs a defense capable of making one more stop, generating one more pressure at the right moment. That is exactly the role an edge rotation is supposed to fill — and Chicago is entering 2026 with that rotation unresolved and its best rusher playing for a contract.

My read is this: the Booker-Odeyingbo competition is not the story. The Sweat contract is the story, and the competition is what makes it urgent. If Booker emerges as a genuine contributor, the Bears gain negotiating flexibility and a fallback. If he does not — if Odeyingbo's camp struggles reflect something real and Booker is not yet ready — Chicago walks into the season with a pass rush that is one injury or one unsigned contract away from collapse. For a team whose margin for error in 2025 was already thinner than the final record suggested, that is not a depth concern. That is a structural risk.