CHICAGO — The star power in the 2025 draft class and the anticipation for 2024 No. 1 pick Caleb Williams’ second season under coach Ben Johnson are why the Chicago Bears are one of the teams to watch in the NFL this year.

That will carry the Bears into Week 1 with promise and confidence. Sunday, however, brought a reminder of how challenging it can be to fit players drafted for a previous coaching staff and schemes into an evolving program.

Former second-round pick Gervon Dexter Sr. was traded to the Atlanta Falcons for cornerback Clark Phillips III and a fifth-round pick. Former third-round pick Kiran Amegadjie was waived after appearing in six games with one start over the last two seasons.

Only seven of the 21 draft picks from the 2022 and 2023 classes remain with the Bears. Three are projected starters: Darnell Wright, the highest-paid right tackle in the league; cornerback Tyrique Stevenson; and left tackle Braxton Jones, who could be holding down the spot until Ozzy Trapilo, a second-round pick a year ago, is ready to go.

The Bears got down to the 53-man limit after making some tough decisions, including waiving cornerback Terell Smith, a fifth-round pick in 2023. Two of those seven holdovers from general manager Ryan Poles’ first two draft classes will begin the season on the reserve/physically unable to perform list: nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon (calf) and linebacker Noah Sewell (Achilles tendon).

“This one is going to be really tough,” Poles said Saturday night during the WMVP-AM 1000 broadcast of the preseason finale, a 24-15 road victory over the Tennessee Titans. “There are only so many spots and we have a lot of guys that are making plays for us — not just starters but there is a lot of depth on our team and there are guys that are showing up on special teams and it makes it really difficult.

“That just means we’ve done a really good job both acquiring players, but also our coaches doing a great job of developing as well. So we always love when we have that type of challenge.”

The Bears had real synergy last season among the front office, scouts and Johnson’s coaching staff when it came to developing players — draft picks and veterans alike. They will need to count on that formula again, especially on defense where injuries to Gordon and free-agent safety Coby Bryant (left knee) have created openings.

Dexter wasn’t deemed a great fit for coordinator Dennis Allen’s scheme. He plays with poor leverage too often and isn’t the kind of explosive, penetrating interior player Allen prefers.

The Bears added free agents Kentavius Street and Neville Gallimore and rookies Jordan van den Berg and Jayden Loving, and the hope is they can create a nice rotation with veteran Grady Jarrett at defensive tackle, a position Johnson said last week is underrated outside the building. If injuries hit, the Bears might miss Dexter, who was seeking a new contract entering his fourth season and missed only two games in three years in Chicago.

The other two Poles picks remaining from the 2022 and ’23 drafts are third running back Roschon Johnson and reserve safety Elijah Hicks, who was activated from the PUP list last week coming off a shin injury.

The biggest questions surround Gordon, who, when we heard from Poles at the outset of training camp, was in a “delay” to return to football activity.

It’s something Poles needs to account for when he talks this week about the initial roster because Gordon’s lack of availability is the mystery wrapped inside an enigma at Halas Hall.

Because Gordon remains on PUP, he must miss at least the first four regular-season games. A 21-day return-to-practice window can start as early as Sept. 21, the first day of Week 3.

But there’s no telling when or even if Gordon will be in the mix. Johnson has brushed aside the topic anytime it’s broached. You could loosely translate his response each time as, “Next question.”

Plenty of folks in the building have a role in where this situation is, Gordon included. It’s difficult to fathom how Trapilo has been a limited participant in practice for two weeks in his comeback from a ruptured patellar tendon and surgery in January, while a calf issue that can be traced back to the first week of August 2025 still shelves Gordon.

There are tales of players gutting it out in what can be a brutal game. Six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz suffered a torn Lisfranc ligament in the third quarter of the NFC championship game in the 2010 season when Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Ryan Pickett threw left tackle J’Marcus Webb into Kreutz’s lap.

Kreutz went to the sideline and informed offensive line coach Mike Tice he thought he had broken his foot. Coach Lovie Smith came over and told Kreutz the team didn’t have another center. Somehow, he finished the game. Kreutz returned to be ready for the following season, when he signed with the New Orleans Saints after general manager Jerry Angelo didn’t offer him a contract.

Gordon is still out, and far more questions exist than answers, in part because he’s off limits to media.

— Is Gordon capable of passing a physical right now?

— What did his routine consist of before the offseason program?

— Why haven’t the Bears found a path to get him on the field yet?

— Is his relationship with the athletic training staff fractured?

— Does he have a burning desire to play after the team made him the highest-paid nickel cornerback in the NFL in April 2025?

— Was Johnson loosely referring to Gordon when he said Thursday that “we have almost the entire roster fighting their tails off to get back out on the field. They do not like missing time.”

Unless Johnson misspoke — and he’s not prone to malaprops or mixed messages — that implies that a very small portion of what was then a 90-man roster wasn’t busting their tails to get on the field.

The timeline since last summer is a mess. Gordon was initially injured in the first week of August and showed up on the injury report with hamstring, calf and groin injuries. He was on track to return before the season opener before being reinjured. He returned Oct. 13 at Washington and was injured again the following week against the New Orleans Saints. Gordon played in the Nov. 28 game in Philadelphia and then was injured again in warmups before the next game in Green Bay.

He came back in time for the playoffs, and it was easy to see how impactful he can be in Allen’s defense. Then he did next to nothing in the offseason program, and here we are, 13 days from the opener at Carolina, still in a delay.

“Obviously he’s frustrated,” Poles said when camp opened in July. “We’re frustrated. We just want him back. He helps our football team. We have to move forward with the guys we have, and when he’s ready to go, he’ll be ready to go. Everybody here is putting all their time and effort to get him back right.”

The Bears ran out of time to get Gordon in the mix so he could start building a little equity with the coaches.

“Definitely unfortunate circumstances,” nickel cornerbacks coach Cannon Matthews said earlier in camp.

So what has Gordon been up to besides rehabilitation?

“We have him involved in different projects to stay engaged to make sure the mental part stays there,” Matthews said. “A guy that is a competitor that wants to be out there, it’s tough on him. But everything I have seen, I have no doubts he’s doing everything he can to be out there.”

Gordon did some presentations for the preseason games, Matthews said. Maybe that has connected him with the team in a way, but it sounds a lot like the kind of work that’s heaped on quality control assistants in the regular season, not cornerbacks signed to three-year, $40 million extensions.

In reworking the defense for this season, the Bears leaned into the strategy that they would be better in the secondary and that would help the pass rush, which didn’t get a lot of personnel upgrades. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson has had an encouraging summer, but Bryant is out until at least mid-December after surgery on his left knee.

With Gordon out, Allen is faced with the prospect of playing rookie fourth-round pick Malik Muhammad II in the slot for the time being. It’s either Muhammad or veteran Cam Lewis, who started 14 games over the previous six seasons in Buffalo.

Muhammad is a future exit strategy from Gordon. There’s no clean way out out the contract right now. Good luck trading a player with a $10 million base salary who has been out all summer and missed 14 regular-season games a year ago. Releasing Gordon would saddle the Bears with $22.5 million in dead cap space for 2026.

It’s a sticky situation, but there’s no reason all involved can’t seek a path to get Gordon into the fold. Poles needs to articulate how that can happen and what obstacles have prevented it to this point. The Bears are trying to help Gordon. That’s a start. He has to help himself too.

The future of former Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller once looked mighty bleak after minor arthroscopic knee surgery cost him an entire season. He rebounded to be a top performer for the Bears, making one All-Pro and two Pro Bowl teams. That’s the best-case scenario for Gordon.

The worst-case scenario is he doesn’t see the field this season. The Bears would benefit right now from a solution that gets the talented and versatile Gordon on the field sooner rather than later. Then all parties can figure out the next move in the offseason.

For now, what’s the delay?

____

©2026 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.