Adam Schefter highlights one big concern for Chicago Bears' defense in 2026

Chicago Bears On SI · Jul 22, 2026 21:00 · 3 min read

Adam Schefter Highlights One Big Concern for Chicago Bears' Defense in 2026 — Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Chicago Bears led the NFL in turnovers last season, but if they fail to do so again in 2026, ESPN's Adam Schefter believes that could be a massive problem.

The Chicago Bears didn't have a good defense in 2025, and we need not look further than their rankings to know that.

Chicago sported the 11th-worst pass defense, the sixth-worst run defense and gave up the 10th-most points per game in the NFL.

The only thing stopping Chicago's defense from totally collapsing was the takeaways, of which the Bears had a whopping 33. That total no doubt saved Dennis Allen's unit from being even worse than it was.

The concern for the Bears in 2026, which ESPN's Adam Schefter highlighted on his podcast, is that the Bears could very well regress in the turnovers department.

And if that happens, the total collapse the Bears avoided in 2025 might be unavoidable in 2026 if things don't improve across the board.

“They did it largely because they forced a league-high 33 turnovers. As good as they were, it’s difficult to think that’s going to happen again," Schefter said of the Bears. "They gave up 24.4 points per game last year, but got all of the turnovers. This year, I’ll bet you the turnovers drop and the points per game is also going to have to drop to keep up with what they did last year.”

On top of it simply being hard to re-create what the Bears did in the turnover department in 2025, Chicago also parted ways with players who tallied a combined total of 22 of those turnovers.

The list is headlined by Kevin Byard, Nahshon Wright and Tremaine Edmunds, who combined for 16 picks and four recovered fumbles.

A major concern when it comes to overcoming turnover regression is Chicago's lack of additions to fix defensive problems.

Chicago did not adequately address the interior of the defensive line and did nothing in the edge rusher group after those units were bad in run defense and in the pass rush. Unfortunately, there's not much hope things will improve upfront.

The Bears did do a good job replacing Byard and Jaquan Brisker, but the CB2 spot is a huge worry as the Bears prepare to hold a competition between Tyrique Stevenson, who was benched last season, and the unproven Malik Muhammad.

From a glass-half-full perspective, defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator Al Harris has routinely overseen productive secondary units during his career.

In fact, the Bears were the second team to lead the league in picks with Harris as its defensive backs coach, with the other being the Dallas Cowboys in 2021.

It's also worth noting that Chicago didn't have either Jaylon Johnson or Kyler Gordon for large chunks of the season, something that no doubt badly hurt the secondary.

Hopefully that will change in 2026, although Gordon has been off to an ominous start after missing all of the spring practices due to a soft-tissue injury.

Perhaps the concerns about turnover regression are overblown, but we won't know that for sure until we see what the Bears do in the regular season. But, for now, it's fair to be concerned about turnover regression and the Bears' defense as a whole.