The Chicago Bears will need a Plan B at the free safety position for the 2026 season if they are unable to sign All-Pro Kevin Byard to a contract extension. Could that prompt them to make a trade call about another veteran All-Pro?
The Bears might need to completely overhaul their safety position over the next few months of the 2026 offseason as all four of their primary safeties — including strong safety Jaquan Brisker — are set to become free agents on March 11. The only safety otherwise under contract for them past then is Gervarrius Owens.
While the Bears have said they want Byard back, they have close to $13 million in cap expenditures to clear from their books just to get back to even before the start of the 2026 league year. Even once they have space, the tight constraints might stop them from investing big money in Byard — who turns 33 in August — if his market soars.
Enter Jessie Bates III, a three-time second-team All-Pro for the Atlanta Falcons who could find himself on the move in 2026 as the team relights the burners on its rebuild.
Jessie Bates III Remains Among NFL’s Best Free Safeties
Despite the Falcons’ shortcomings in 2025, Bates showed once again why he belongs in the upper echelon of the league’s free safeties. He tallied three interceptions, six pass deflections and 98 total tackles and held opposing passers to under a 60% completion percentage (56.3%) in coverage for the third time in his eight-season career.
Bates also played in every game for the Falcons for a third year in a row. He has missed just three games in his career and only once played fewer than 1,000 snaps in a season.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, their window seems to have shifted again as they enter a critical restructuring phase in 2026 that has already seen them hire a new head coach (Kevin Stefanski) and president of football (Matt Ryan) and will include a GM hiring. And if a veteran player does not fit the new window, the brass could look to move on.
According to Spotrac, Bates would cost roughly $13 million against the cap in the final year of his four-year $64 million deal, which is a little higher than the estimated $8 million to $12 million that Byard is expected to fetch per season, but he is also three years younger and could give Chicago a longer-term answer with its window wide open.
The proposed trade terms: The Bears send a 2026 fourth-round pick (from the Los Angeles Rams) to the Falcons in exchange for Bates and the final year of his contract. Presumably, the Bears would also work out a short-term extension with Bates either before or shortly after the trade to ensure he does not become a one-year rental.
Bears Want to Re-Sign Kevin Byard, But Will it Work Out?
Bears general manager Ryan Poles has taken unique approaches to resolving some of his previous rosters’ biggest holes in past offseasons, such as in 2025 when he used a pair of trades to add All-Pro Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson as his new starting guards.
Poles’ outside-of-the-box thinking is also the primary inspiration for this trade pitch for Bates, who is a talented player and veteran leader who could hit the block before March.
Before the Bears explore other options at free safety, though, they owe it to themselves to negotiate with Byard and see if they can find a reasonable way to retain him for 2026.
Byard was outstanding for the Bears in 2025, leading the NFL in interceptions (seven) for the second time in his career and adding 93 tackles, four tackles for loss and eight pass breakups to his season tally. He received Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors and, like Bates, also maintained his career-long pro streak of consistent availability.
When asked about Byard, Poles made no secret of his interest in re-signing him.
“I think Kevin is a special player,” Poles told reporters on January 21. “I have no problem saying that’s a player that we would like to have back. But again, when you add the other safeties [entering free agency] into that mix and all the other decisions we have across the roster — cap restraints, things like that — it will be a challenge, but that’s part of what we do.”
Bears Trade Pitch Lands $64 Million All-Pro to Replace Kevin Byard