If there’s two positions the Chicago Bears should keep exploring additions for, it’s the interior of the defensive line and edge rusher.
At edge rusher, the Bears’ top trio of Austin Booker, Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo have been solid, with the three edge rushers combining for seven sacks through four games.
However, there’s no guarantee that is going to continue, and the Bears could use more depth in general with Odeyingbo playing more snaps on the inside.
Along the interior of the defensive line, the Bears are a little better than average against the run, but the interior is still lacking pass-rush juice after the Gervon Dexter trade, with Kentavius Street accounting for the lone sack from that group.
Two rumored trade candidates named by The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones should be of interest to Chicago.
Bears should watch Colts, Giants trade candidates
Jones listed New York Giants edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle Grover Stewart as two players he’s keeping an eye on when it comes to trade candidates after speaking to some of his sources.
“After shaking down sources this week, I’m keeping an eye on a number of players,” Jones said before naming Thibodeaux and Stewart.
Stewart and Thibodeaux have something in common in that they are both in the final year of their contract and don’t figure to have much of a future with their respective teams, so that puts them in the conversation as trade candidates.
However, the only way we could see Indy and New York trading them away is if they fall out of playoff contention by the time the deadline rolls around. That isn’t certain to happen with the Colts sitting at 2-2 and the Giants at 3-1.
Adding to that, Thibodeaux’s presence just became much more important for this season after Brian Burns suffered a torn ACL.
That said, despite all of that, Jones is still hearing these names come up in his conversations with sources, so we should take a possible trade of one or both as a legit possibility.
How Thibodeaux, Stewart can help Bears
Thibodeaux has been a disappointment during his career, no doubt, but he’s still just 25 years old and perhaps a change of scenery could help.
Thibodeaux doesn’t have any sacks so far this season, but he did post eight in his 22 games the past two campaigns, and he had a career-high of 11.5 in 2023, so we know he’s capable of more. We also know Thibodeaux has shown flashes of being an impact run defender, as evidenced by his 80.7 run defense grade in 2025, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Bears don’t even need need him to anchor the pass-rush and instead he just has to provide adequate depth behind the Bears’ top three edge rushers.
He’s worth a swing for Chicago, especially with his price likely being low due to his toileted stock.
Stewart’s sack production slipped last season, but he did post a career-high 3.5 in 2024 and he’s got 0.5 sacks and three pressures in four games this season.
The former mark would be second-most on the Bears among their interior defenders, as would his three pressures. Stewart has also shown he can make a difference against the run with PFF grades north of 70 in six of his 10 seasons.
Stewart is another player whose stock is down, so the Bears could get him for cheap, and there is absolutely a path for him to start in Chicago and make a big impact, which could lead to a steal of a trade for general manager Ryan Poles.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
