Chicago Bears defensive back Nahshon Wright put together one of the feel-good, underdog stories of the 2025 NFL season, but whether he and the team will set the sequel in the Windy City remains very much up in the air.
Wright, 27 years old, inked a one-year deal worth $1.1 million to join Chicago last season. After just three starts across four campaigns in the league — three with the Dallas Cowboys and in 2024 as a member of the Minnesota Vikings — Wright started 16 contests for the Bears and played defensive snaps in all 17 regular-season games.
He finished the year with 80 combined tackles, including three tackles for loss, 11 pass breakups, five interceptions, two forced fumbles and a defensive touchdown. Given his production, Wright is going to get paid one way or another.
The question is if Chicago will put up the money to keep him on a defense that struggled much of last season with Wright shining as one of the few bright spots. For his part, Wright has said he hopes to be back with the Bears in 2026.
“I definitely would love to be back in Chicago, but who knows,” Wright said, per Mark Carman of CHGO Bears via X on Monday, February 2. “We’ll see.”
Micah Parsons Argued Nahshon Wright Should Have Been Pro Bowler
GettyPass-rusher Micah Parsons of the Green Bay Packers.
Wright impressed a number of people around the league with his breakout play in 2025, including first-team All-Pro pass-rusher Micah Parsons of the rival Green Bay Packers.
Voters did not name Wright a Pro-Bowl cornerback for his work during the season, an omission that Parsons called out specifically via social media.
“Nahshon Wright getting snubbed for first team Pro Bowl selection is crazy!!” Parsons wrote on December 23.
Part of what made Wright’s ascent so special was that it came completely out of nowhere five years into his professional career. The Vikings didn’t give Wright even one defensive snap in 2024, relegating him completely to special teams where he played just 15 snaps over the course of the year.
Nahshon Wright’s Play in 2025 May Have Priced Bears Out of New Contract
GettyChicago Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright.
Even without the Pro-Bowl title in front of his name, Spotrac projects Wright will cash in majorly come free agency in March, if he doesn’t do so via an extension with the Bears before then.
The salary cap-centric website predicts that Wright will command north of $50 million over a new three-year contract, which equates to nearly $17 million annually.
Assuming Wright can truly command that much on the open market, his demand across the league may simply price the Bears out of a new deal. Chicago has already invested in superstar cornerback Jaylon Johnson to the tune of $76 million over four seasons.
The Bears aren’t in too bad of a way financially heading into 2026, but they are unlikely to have anywhere near the free-agency spending power they possessed in the past couple of offseasons. So while the secondary should be a priority, Chicago also has to consider the pending free agencies of safeties Kevin Byard III (first-team All-Pro in 2025), Jaquan Brisker and versatile mid-season pickup CJ Gardner-Johnson.
As such, the franchise may not be able to risk a potential overpay to Wright, whom logic suggests might regress to some degree next season following an out-of-nowhere breakout campaign that came on the heels of four relatively anonymous seasons to start his career.
Breakout Bears CB Nahshon Wright Breaks Silence on Future in Chicago