The Chicago Bears aren’t likely looking at an onerous amount of money to extend key free agents in the coming offseason, though a couple of prominent contributors are likely to ink handsome deals.
Chief among them is safety and defensive captain Kevin Byard III, who earned Pro Bowl honors for the third time in his NFL career during his second season with the Bears in 2025.
Jacob Infante of Windy City Gridiron predicted on December 24 that Chicago will offer the 32-year-old defensive back a two-year extension worth $24 million.
“He’ll be expensive, but he’ll hardly reset the market at his age,” Infante wrote. “Harrison Smith got a one-year extension from the [Minnesota] Vikings this past offseason worth a little over $10 million. Because Byard is having a better year than Smith’s 2024 and [is] three-and-a-half years younger, he gets a two-year deal with over $1 million more annually.”
Byard signed a two-year contract worth $15 million to join the Bears ahead of the 2024 campaign, which turned out to be a steal for Chicago’s secondary.
Kevin Byard Leads League in Interceptions, Bears Lead NFL in Turnovers
GettyChicago Bears safety Kevin Byard.
Part of what has made Byard so important to the Bears’ defense this season is his propensity for takeaways.
Chicago owns just the 24th-ranked defense in the league through Week 16, but the opportunistic unit leads the NFL in turnovers created, and Byard has been a key element in that crucial statistic.
“Byard is having a career resurgence in Chicago with a league-high six interceptions on the Bears defense, which has a league-best 31 takeaways,” Courtney Cronin of ESPN wrote on December 23 in the context Byard’s Pro Bowl honors.
Bears Right Tackle Darnell Wright Also in Line for Big Extension
GettyRight tackle Darnell Wright of the Chicago Bears.
The only Bears player whom Infante predicted will land a bigger payday than Byard in 2026 is right tackle Darnell Wright.
Wright, the former No. 10 overall pick in the 2023 draft, is entering the fourth year of his $21 million rookie contract next season. As a first-round selection, Wright’s deal includes a fifth-year team option that Chicago can exercise by late spring 2026, which is a highly likely outcome.
That means that the offensive lineman will be under contract for two more years before any extension would kick in. However, he is eligible for one next March, and there are several reasons it would behoove the Bears to get a deal done then.
“Considering [Wright is] arguably their most valuable long-term asset along the offensive line, it’s smart to extend him before he gets even more expensive,” Infante wrote.
His prediction for Wright was a three-year deal worth $66.5 million in total.
“This contract would make Wright the third-highest paid right tackle in the NFL behind Penei Sewell and Lane Johnson, which is a completely fair assessment of where he stands in the league,” Infante continued. “There’s also a certain amount of cap space that would be saved by signing him to a contract extension.”
Pro Football Focus ranks Wright the 15th-best tackle in the league, regardless of the right or left side of the line, out of 82 players at the position who have seen enough snaps to qualify through 16 weeks this year.
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