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Rookies and quarterbacks will quietly report to Halas Hall on July 25, three days before the rest of the team arrives for training camp.
Thats common practice in the NFL, which allows first-year players to do extra classroom work to get ready.Bearsrookies will walk into their new home with a task far different than their most recent predecessors to help an established winner.
In most cases, theyre not being counted on to be saviors, but merely contributors.Here are goals some lofty, some modest for each of theBears seven draft picks:Safety Dillon Thieneman (Round 1, Pick 25)Goal: Start every game.For all the concerns about Kevin Byards age and Jaquan Briskers concussion history, the Bears two safeties started every game last year.
Now both are gone, replaced by Thieneman and big-money free agent signee Coby Bryant.Using a first-round pick on at the often-overlooked safety spot only raises the stakes for Thieneman to be dynamic in Year 1.
The Chargers Derwin James had the best rookie year of any first-round safety picked in the last decade, recording 105 tackles, three interceptions and 3 12 sacks in 2018.
Thieneman is unlikely to match those numbers or come close to Byards seven interceptions from last year.
But he but should be more productive and much more versatile than the physical Brisker, who had one pick and one sack in 2025.
The easiest way to get there is to stay on the field.Center Logan Jones (Round 2, Pick 57)Goal: Help the Bears produce a trade-deadline chip.The Bears traded for the Patriots Garrett Bradbury after the sudden retirement of Drew Dalman, giving them a one-year stopgap at the spot, and then drafted Jones with plans of making him a long-term answer.Bradbury enters training camp as the starter the Bears want to give Jones time to learn a complicated position.
But if the Iowa rookie can take the starting job from him in the first two months of the season, Bradbury will have served his purpose.
The Bears could then find a center-needy team to deal for Bradbury before the Nov.
10 trade deadline.Tight end Sam Roush (Round 3, Pick 69)Goal: Become yet another Ben Johnson success story at tight end.A tight ends coach before he was a play-caller, Johnson has a history of developing stars at the position.
Sam LaPorta was a second-team all-pro as a Lions rookie in 2023 and Colston Loveland was the Bears leading pass-catcher last year.Roush is unlikely to reach any of those goals in his first year as the Bears third tight end, but his physicality as an in-line blocker should help Johnson create mismatches.
If Roush shows pass-catching promise as a rookie, he could make Cole Kmet expendable in the offseason.
Kmets deal is set to expire after the 2027 season.Wide receiver Zavion Thomas (Round 3, Pick 89)Goal: Post 1,070 kickoff return yards.Why the oddly specific number? Because Devin Duvernay had 1,069 last year, fifth-most in the league, before the Bears let him leave to sign with the Cardinals.
They drafted Thomas believing he could be a kick return weapon on Day 1 and make more of an offensive impact than the veteran, who caught just two balls last year.
Look for Thomas to catch screens, take handoffs and maybe even throw the ball on occasion.Whether he returns punts is another question.
Kalif Raymond, whom the Bears signed in March, was a second-team all-pro punt returner in two of the last four years with the Lions.Cornerback Malik Muhammad (Round 4, Pick 124)Goal: Make the Bears think twice about Tyrique Stevenson.Stevenson is penciled in as the starting outside cornerback opposite Jaylon Johnson, though it might not take much for the Bears to re-think their plan.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, after all, didnt play Stevenson a single snap in the regular season finale last year.Muhammad and Terell Smith will battle for the backup outside cornerback job.
The Texas rookie has been working in the slot, too, which might be a clearer path toward playing time, given Kyler Gordons propensity to land in the training room.Linebacker Keyshaun Elliott (Round 5, Pick 166)Goal: Play all four special teams.Elliott was an all-state punter in high school and knows how to long snap, too.
The Bears, though, would be thrilled if he spent his rookie year becoming a reliable tackler on kickoff, kick returner, punt and punt return.
Elliott wasnt a special teamer at Arizona State, but he sat in on every meeting.Coming over to the NFL Ill accept whatever role they put me in, Elliott said.
If its core four [special teams], Im going to be a core four guy to the best of my capability.Defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg (Round 6, Pick 213)Goal: Make the active roster.The Bears final draft pick was a late comer to football, moving to Atlanta from his native South Africa at 10 and walking on as a player at Iowa Western Community College.
He finished his career at Georgia Tech, where his freakish physical traits flashed.Already 24, van den Berg is a developmental project who might be best-suited to the practice squad as a rookie.
Making the 53-man roster coming out of training camp, then, would be an achievement.