Tremaine Edmunds was having such a productive start to the 2025 season, he might have been on his way to a Pro Bowl selection before a minor groin injury sidelined him.
Edmunds had 36 more tackles than the next-closest Chicago Bears defender when he was injured, and despite missing four games on injured reserve, he still finished with 19 more than free safety Kevin Byard III.
All of that should benefit Edmunds in finding his next team as the Bears are terminating the linebacker’s contract. A league source late Thursday confirmed the team is moving on from Edmunds, news that ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported originally reported.
The move came hours after the team reportedly traded wide receiver DJ Moore and a 2026 fifth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick and two days after Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman abruptly announced his retirement at age 27.
Those three moves and the Feb. 19 release of linebacker and core special teams performer Amen Ogbongbemiga have saved the Bears about $44 million in salary-cap space, ensuring they will be cap-compliant when the new league year begins Wednesday.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles showed respect for Edmunds by making the move now, before free agency opens Wednesday. Edmunds will be able to sign elsewhere once the transaction is official.
The Bears had given Edmunds’ camp permission during the NFL scouting combine to seek a potential trade, but no deal materialized.
The Bears signed Edmunds to a four-year, $72 million contract in 2023, and this move was more salary-cap-related than anything else. The team frees up $15 million in cap space (the amount Edmunds was due to earn in 2026), and now linebacker becomes a clear need with the Bears expected to focus on fortifying the defense this offseason.
Edmunds, a first-round pick by the Bills in 2018, has played eight NFL seasons but doesn’t turn 28 until May. He had 89 tackles through the first 10 games in 2025 with four interceptions, nine passes defended, one sack and three quarterback hits.
Veteran linebacker T.J. Edwards suffered a fractured left fibula in the wild-card victory over the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. The hope is he will be fully recovered at some point during the offseason.
D’Marco Jackson, who wound up starting five games after the Bears claimed him off waivers from the New Orleans Saints in August, will be an unrestricted free agent. The Bears could consider re-signing Jackson, who would cost a fraction of what Edmunds was set to make. But they’ll likely need to add to the position via the draft after 2025 fourth-round pick Ruben Hyppolite II was rarely active, playing in just seven games with 31 snaps on defense.
The Bears made Edmunds the marquee addition of their free-agent class in 2023 after trading linebacker Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens near the deadline in 2022. The idea was a player with Edmunds’ size (6-foot-4, 251 pounds), length and range made him a great replacement for Smith.
While Edmunds wasn’t super impactful playing middle linebacker in his first two seasons in Chicago, he thrived this past season after defensive coordinator Dennis Allen moved him to the weak side and switched Edwards to the middle.
“His skill set fits that position in terms of the things that we ask that position to do, the size, the length, the athletic ability,” Allen said in November. “That’s been good. When you’re in the middle, there’s a lot of communication things that have to occur, and (at weak side) you’re able to take a little bit of that off his plate. He’s a little bit more free to just go play.”
Now Edmunds is free to sign elsewhere — and the Bears have work to do to shore up the second level of the defense.
Chicago Tribune reporter Sean Hammond contributed.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/05/chicago-bears-tremaine-edmunds-release/
