The Chicago Bears are moving in the right direction under first-year head coach Ben Johnson, who has led his team to a 7-3 record over 10 games.
If Chicago can finish the year strong, we could see general manager Ryan Poles get aggressive in 2026 in order to acquire players who can put this team over the top.
One player the Bears could target, according to Bleacher Report's Alex Kay, is Myles Garrett, who will no doubt be the center of trade speculation and rumors during the offseason after yet another bad campaign for the Cleveland Browns.
Kay proposes a trade between the Bears and Browns that sends Cleveland four picks, including 2026 first- and second-round picks and 2027 first- and fourth-round picks.
The Bears defense rates near the bottom in the league in both total and scoring defense, allowing a concerning 364.6 yards and 26.4 points per game. The team has mustered just 21 sacks on the year—only seven more than Garrett himself has collected in 2025.
Having a sack artist like Garrett in the defensive trenches would instantly elevate the Bears to the upper echelon of NFL defenses and further improve their fast-rising Super Bowl odds.
ESPN's Adam Schefter has reported that the Bears pursued Garrett before the trade deadline, so clearly Chicago will be interested if Garrett hits the trade block this offseason, as will several other teams.
The Browns have remained steadfast in not trading Garrett, even when he requested a trade last offseason, but we haven't seen what Cleveland would do if Garrett was to really dig in and not budge on his demand, something he didn't do earlier this year after the Browns threw a bunch of money at him.
If Garrett remains committed to being traded this time around, the Browns will have no choice but to move him and that will set up for a wild situation.
Acquiring Garrett would make sense for the Bears, who have 21 sacks this season, tied for the ninth-fewest in the NFL. That's not going to cut it if Chicago wants to take that next step from a borderline playoff team to a true contender.
One potential issue for this trade is the Bears squeezing in Garrett's $160 million contract, as Chicago is only projected to have $1.2 million in cap space in 2026.
However, where there's a will, there's a way when it comes to the NFL salary cap, so we'd suspect Poles would find a way to make it work.
The package Kay suggests is massive, but that's what it's going to take to land the NFL's best edge rusher, who is going to have plenty of suitors.
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