Good morning, Chicago.

A Circuit Court judge ruled this week that Cook County misspent hundreds of millions of transportation dollars, a win for the trade association representing construction firms statewide.

Judge Alison Conlon ordered that the county’s use of $243 million in transportation tax revenues during the 2023 fiscal year violated the Safe Roads Amendment to the state constitution. The county unsuccessfully argued it could spend the tax dollars on other expenses tied to enforcing the rules of the road at offices such as the sheriff, state’s attorney, public defender and circuit court clerk.

The Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Alliance, a trade group representing construction, design and maintenance firms, originally filed suit in 2018 opposing that policy. They hoped to bar the county from using tax revenues it expected to collect from gas, parking lots, garages, and car purchases on anything but direct transportation projects. The county’s diversion of those dollars threatened their livelihoods, they argued.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s A.D. Quig.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including what to know about another round of snow hitting Chicago, Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts from the Senior Bowl and why the Tribune’s theater critic called a new play extraordinary.

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White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference as Marcos Charles and Rodney Scott, listen, at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Jan. 29, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Trump’s border czar suggests a possible drawdown in Minnesota, but only after ‘cooperation’

The Trump administration could reduce the number of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota, but only if state and local officials cooperate, the president’s border czar said, noting he has “zero tolerance” for protesters who assault federal officers or impede the ongoing Twin Cities operation.

A protester is detained and removed from the Target store in Chicago’s West Loop, Jan. 29, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Seven detained outside West Loop Target as protesters demand retailer stand against ICE

Several people were detained at Chicago’s West Loop Target last night amid a protest outside the store to demand the retailer publicly denounce U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it comes into the crosshairs over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

The people were detained at the start of the protest as they tried to block exits and shut down the store, according to the People’s Lobby, which organized the demonstration. Chicago police confirmed to the Tribune that seven adults, three men and four women, were each charged with criminal trespass to property.

People walk in Chicago’s Loop as a winter storm passes through on Jan. 25, 2026. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Slick roads in store as another round of snow sweeps across the Chicago area

Brace for another bout of snow, Chicago.

A winter weather advisory is set to go in effect today for much of the morning into the afternoon as a burst of accumulating snow sweeps through the Chicago area.

The former Paderewski Elementary School, 2221 S. Lawndale Ave., on Jan. 29, 2026. The school board voted unanimously in favor of its sale at its January meeting. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Public Schools approves buyers for two more closed buildings

The sales of the former Louis Daniel Armstrong Elementary in Austin and Ignace Paderewski Elementary in Little Village will net the district $155,500. Both properties have been shuttered since the city’s mass closures in 2013. The board voted unanimously in favor of the sales at its January meeting.

Editor-in-Chief Sarah Conway in the Chicago Reader office in the Douglas neighborhood, Jan. 26, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Reader, the city’s struggling alt-weekly, is going monthly under new owners

The Chicago Reader, the groundbreaking alternative weekly which has been on the brink of dissolution for years, will become a monthly in February under new owners, who are looking to reinvent the storied newspaper while turning red ink to black.

U.S. Senate contenders U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton prepare before their debate on Jan. 29, 2026, at WLS-Ch. 7. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Illinois Democratic hopefuls for US Senate agree Trump poses constitutional crisis but other differences emerge

The three leading Democratic candidates vying for the March 17 primary nomination to the U.S. Senate agreed last night the nation is facing a constitutional crisis and hurled invectives at President Donald Trump, with each arguing they would be best equipped to rein in his administration if elected to Washington.

But in an hour-long debate, small yet distinct differences emerged among U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg and Robin Kelly of Lynwood and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.

Junaid Ahmed and Neil Khot take on fellow Democrat Melissa Bean in new ads for Illinois’ 8th District
Top candidates for the US House in Illinois’ 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th districts for the 2026 election

National team quarterbacks Cole Payton of North Dakota State, Sawyer Robertson of Baylor and Diego Pavia of Vanderbilt run through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Jan. 27, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

Chicago Bears’ offseason priorities are open-ended. Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts from the Senior Bowl.

Ten thoughts from the Senior Bowl after Brad Biggs spent the last four days chatting with folks across the league.

Bears guard Joe Thuney among 6 finalists for inaugural NFL Protector of the Year award
Ian Cunningham leaving Bears front office for Atlanta Falcons GM job

Red Panda performs at halftime of a Bulls-76ers game Nov. 4, 2025, at the United Center. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

After a terrifying fall, Red Panda retraces what went wrong — and the support that carried her back

Rong Niu has grown somewhat accustomed to the fanfare over decades performing at NBA, WNBA and college basketball games — her first halftime show was a Los Angeles Clippers game in 1993. Still, even after sports fans rallied around her following a frightening fall during a WNBA game in July, she can hardly put words to what the support means to her.

Claire DeJean and Denver Milord in the first national tour of “Stereophonic.” (Julieta Cervantes)

Review: ‘Stereophonic’ is a play about a ’70s band and the price you pay for genius

This is an extraordinary piece of theater, writes Chris Jones. It’s a deep cut into the agony and ecstasy of collaboration, and a profound meditation on the personal price you inevitably pay, and what you benefit, when you work with a combustible, volatile, insanely driven visionary.

Marques Carroll performs on stage with the Chi-Town Trumpet Summit at Andy’s Jazz Club on Jan. 20 2026. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Jazz trumpeter Marques Carroll’s pandemic dreams bear fruit on live album series

Marques Carroll has been a steady presence on the Chicago scene for decades. But, like so many others, the coronavirus pandemic made him take stock of his career. For the first time, he felt emboldened to funnel creative energy into his projects, giving impromptu porch concerts with a combo at his Bucktown home and writing music with renewed urgency.

While Carroll’s albums “Live from Andy’s” and “Live from Winter’s” may have come out in November, they owe their existence to that period.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/daywatch-cook-county-misspent-243m-in-transportation-dollars-judge-rules/ 

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders were scrambling to save a bipartisan spending deal and avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday as Democrats have demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.

Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump Thursday to separate funding for the Homeland Security Department from a broad government spending bill and fund it for two weeks while Congress debates curbs on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The deal came as irate Democrats had vowed to vote against the entire spending bill and trigger a shutdown in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.

“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September” while extending current funding for Homeland Security, Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

Trump had said earlier in the day that “we don’t want a shutdown.”

Still, passage of the agreement was delayed late Thursday as Senate leaders were still working to win enough support for the package.

Leaving the Capitol just before midnight Thursday after hours of negotiations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there were “snags on both sides” as he and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to work through any objections that could delay passage past the Friday deadline.

“Hopefully people will be of the spirit to try and get this done tomorrow,” Thune said as the Senate was scheduled to reconvene on Friday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Thursday that he was one of the senators objecting. He said ICE agents were being treated unfairly and he opposed House language repealing a new law that gives senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge.

Rare bipartisan talks

The unusual bipartisan talks between Trump and Schumer, his frequent adversary, came after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minnesota over the weekend and calls by senators in both parties for a full investigation. Schumer called it “a moment of truth.”

“What ICE is doing, outside the law, is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must stop,” Schumer said Thursday. “Congress has the authority — and the moral obligation — to act.”

The standoff has threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown, just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies. That dispute closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.

That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.

Republicans were more willing to make a deal, as well, as several of them said they were open to new restrictions after the two fatal shootings.

Democrats lay out demands

Democrats have laid out several demands, asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.

They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.

Earlier on Thursday, Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, stated during a press conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are developing a plan to reduce the number of agents in Minnesota, but this would depend on cooperation from state authorities.

Still far apart on policy

If the deal moves forward, negotiations down the road on a final agreement on the Homeland Security bill are likely to be difficult.

Democrats want Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown to end. “If the Trump administration resists reforms, we shut down the agency,” said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

But Republicans are unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ demands.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he is opposed to requiring immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.

“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said.

Graham said some of the Democratic proposals “make sense,” such as better training and body cameras. Still, he said he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes to the funding bill, he would insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“I think the best legislative solution for our country would be to adopt some of these reforms to ICE and Border Patrol,” Graham posted on X. But he said that the bill should also end so-called “sanctuary city” policies.

Uncertainty in the House

Across the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had been “vehemently opposed” to breaking up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.”

On Thursday evening, at a premiere of a movie about first lady Melania Trump at the Kennedy Center, Johnson said he might have some “tough decisions” to make about when to bring the House back to Washington to approve the bills separated by the Senate, if they pass.

“We’ll see what they do,” Johnson said.

House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they passed last week. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the Republican president and ICE.

“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” they wrote.

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/senate-bipartisan-deal-government-shutdown/ 

Por CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, dijo el viernes que nominará al exfuncionario de la Reserva Federal Kevin Warsh como próximo presidente de la Fed, una elección que podría provocar cambios drásticos en la poderosa agencia, acercándola a la Casa Blanca y reduciendo su independencia de la política cotidiana.

Warsh reemplazaría al actual presidente, Jerome Powell, en mayo, cuando expire su mandato. Trump eligió a Powell para liderar la Fed en 2017, pero este año lo ha criticado sin descanso por no reducir las tasas de interés lo suficientemente rápido.

“Hace mucho tiempo que conozco a Kevin y no tengo dudas de que será recordado como uno de los GRANDES presidentes de la Fed, tal vez el mejor”, dijo Trump en su red social, Truth Social. “Además de todo, es el candidato ideal, y nunca te decepcionará”.

El nombramiento, que debe ser confirmado por el Senado, supone el regreso de Warsh, de 55 años, a la institución, de cuya junta formó parte entre 2006 y 2011. Fue el gobernador más joven de la historia con apenas 35 años. Actualmente, es investigador en la Hoover Institution, de tendencia conservadora, y profesor en la Escuela de Negocios de Posgrado de Stanford.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/trump-nombra-a-warsh-exgobernador-de-la-reserva-federal-como-nuevo-presidente-de-la-fed/ 

Associated Press

JERUSALÉN (AP) — Israel anunció el viernes la reapertura del cruce fronterizo entre la Franja de Gaza y Egipto en ambas direcciones durante el fin de semana, lo que permitirá la entrada y salida de los palestinos del sitiado enclave después de casi dos años de cierre.

El COGAT, el organismo militar israelí encargado de coordinar la ayuda a Gaza, dijo en un comunicado que solo se permitirá el “movimiento limitado de personas”.

La reapertura del cruce de Rafah el domingo será un hito importante para el plan de alto el fuego en Gaza del presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump. El paso, que es la principal puerta de Gaza al mundo exterior, ha estado prácticamente cerrado desde mayo de 2024.

Tanto Israel como Egipto controlarán a la gente que entre y salga por el cruce, que estará supervisado por agentes de la patrulla fronteriza de la Unión Europea.

A los palestinos que salieron de Gaza durante la guerra se les permitirá regresar tras obtener la autorización de seguridad de Israel.

Israel se había resistido la reapertura del cruce, pero la recuperación de los restos del último rehén que seguía en la Franja el lunes allanó el camino para avanzar.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/israel-reabrir-el-cruce-fronterizo-de-gaza-con-egipto-el-domingo-tras-casi-dos-aos-cerrado/ 

When Chris Holtmann arrived at DePaul in March 2024, the longtime men’s basketball coach heard how “depressed” the Blue Demons home crowd was in attendance, atmosphere and energy at Wintrust Arena.

Holtmann’s mission, of course, was to change that through winning, something DePaul rarely has done this century. But he knew that might not happen consistently right away. So he tried to drum up support from students in other ways.

“I knew that, hey, listen, there’s going to be some hard times here,” Holtmann said. “It’s not like we’re going to win every game. We’re in a great conference. But if you’ll give us a chance, I’d like to reward you.”

At a pep rally before his first season, he promised free lunch to students who attended home wins, a bill the school mostly picked up last season but Holtmann agreed to foot this season. He has his players take a photo celebrating with the student section after every home win.

And on Jan. 16, after the Blue Demons beat Marquette for the first time in nearly four years in front of a crowd of 7,474, he made an impromptu offer on social media: He would buy DePaul students a round at on-campus bar Kelly’s Pub in 35 minutes.

DePaul announced a venue change a short time later because of an event at Kelly’s, but he connected with about 30 students at Homeslice and then ventured into Hook & Ladder, which Holtmann said was a “wild scene” for a 54-year-old who doesn’t go to bars much anymore. He estimated less than half the crowd was DePaul students, but still he hopped up to sit on the bar and announced the first round was on him for students.

“I’m sure some people were like: ‘What’s this dude in a white polo (doing)? Why is he buying people beer? What is that all about?’” Holtmann said.

The colossal challenge of Holtmann’s career is to get DePaul men’s basketball back to the type of renown where Chicagoans know what the Blue Demons are all about.

He and his program look like they’re taking steps to get there in his second season.

Overcoming ‘the stigma’

DePaul coach Chris Holtmann yells to players in the first half against Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Holtmann was very close to taking a year off in the spring of 2024.

Ohio State fired him on Feb. 14, 2024, after nearly seven seasons, four NCAA Tournament appearances and a 137-86 record that had declined slightly in his last two seasons. Holtmann, who began his career with three seasons apiece at Gardner-Webb and Butler, had media opportunities that would have given him a chance to regroup.

“I was close to doing that — really close,” Holtmann said. “Was advised to do that by a lot of people I respect. ‘Hey, take some time. Take a breather.’”

But the challenge of the DePaul job called to him.

The Blue Demons — once consistently great under coaches Ray and Joey Meyer in the 1970s and 1980s — have had a winning conference record one time in the 20 years since they joined the Big East. That came in 2006-07 under Jerry Wainwright when DePaul finished 20-14 overall and 9-7 in the conference.

Since then, DePaul has topped out at seven conference wins once and six wins three times. The Blue Demons haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2003-04 in Dave Leitao’s first stint as coach.

Holtmann looked at that rough recent history and saw opportunity.

“We have a really committed fan base who is really desperate for success,” he said. “Desperately wanting to give them something that they can feel proud of — our fans, our former players. It was the challenge.”

Holtmann said he also believed in the vision DePaul President Rob Manuel and athletic director DeWayne Peevy had. Their conversations centered around name, image and likeness (NIL) support, how they could improve campus support and the atmosphere at games and the construction of a new practice facility.

A DePaul fan holds up a hot dog cutout in the first half against Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Peevy announced the advancement of one of those items this week in a letter to DePaul supporters. He said the athletic department had secured $20 million in cash donations and sponsorships so that it could begin building its $42 million athletics practice facility, planned to open in the fall of 2027.

Holtmann said it’s a needed piece of the puzzle for a successful team, noting his team has had to hold film sessions in hallways and renovated closets because of the lack of current space.

“The last private school I was at, Butler, basketball was very important,” he said. “I wanted to be in a place that was similar to that for me, where I knew that it was important to the university. That puts the pressure on you, but that’s fine.”

At the same time, Holtmann said there was an understanding that there’s a process to a rebuild. He pointed to his former Big Ten opponent Nebraska, which is having a resurgence under seventh-year coach Fred Hoiberg and has started the season 20-1.

“I was in the league when they really, really struggled for several years,” Holtmann said. “Now they’re potentially a No. 1 seed. So in a lot of ways, you’re always feeling pressure, but you also do recognize that there are going to be some challenges.”

When Holtmann took over at DePaul, the Blue Demons had just finished a 3-29 season with an 0-20 Big East record — part of a 39-game regular-season conference losing streak that stretched into last season.

DePaul players are introduced for a game against Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

They had a minus-17 average scoring margin, 10 points below the next-worst Big East team, Georgetown. For multiple games that season, the announced attendance at Wintrust Arena didn’t hit 3,000.

And earlier this month, federal prosecutors alleged four former players from that team participated in a game-fixing scandal for three Big East games under the previous coaching staff.

Taking on that history of failure was one of the primary challenges for Holtmann.

“Overcoming the perception, the stigma,” Holtmann said. “In my two years, that’s been the biggest thing. The jokes that would be made at the program’s expense.”

As he laid the foundation for change, Holtmann first had to persuade players to walk into that situation.

Shrinking the gap

DePaul coach Chris Holtmann watches from the baseline in the first half against Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

After DePaul’s 80-75 win over Marquette — between the on-court celebration with students and the postgame drinks offer — Holtmann tried to lend some perspective to his players in a locker-room speech.

He believes one of the best ways to build a healthy culture is to get players to believe in something bigger than their individual interests. So leading up to the game, he showed his team a half-dozen videos of former players talking about what the Marquette rivalry meant to them.

He went back to that after the game.

“This game means a lot to a lot of people, man. And you guys played like it means a lot to a lot of people,” Holtmann told his players. “There is not one former player that would look at this right now and say, ‘Hey, man, you didn’t represent (us).’

“It just felt like this is bigger than any of us individually right now. We’re doing this for the university, for the program, for former players. We couldn’t be more proud of you.”

When he began at DePaul, Holtmann recognized that joining his rebuilding effort wouldn’t appeal to everyone.

He has told recruits that he understands if it’s not for them. But Holtmann also believes DePaul can provide players both financial support and a unique opportunity in the current wild world of college sports, where attachment is optional.

“There will be a deeper, more powerful experience and more rewarding experience to say, ‘Hey, I was a part of something that hadn’t been done in decades,’ or, ‘I was a part of the beginning stages of building something that hasn’t been done,’” Holtmann said. “And that has really been what we’ve tried to communicate to recruits.”

DePaul guard CJ Gunn smiles after hitting a 3-pointer in the second half against Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Among the players he convinced for his first season were Indiana transfer CJ Gunn, Arkansas transfer Layden Blocker and Missouri State transfer NJ Benson. The trio now leads the Blue Demons in scoring in Year 2, topped by Gunn’s 14.3 points per game.

Holtmann had recruited Blocker for Ohio State before he picked Arkansas, and the main reason Blocker moved to DePaul was for a better opportunity to improve after seeing limited minutes as a Razorbacks freshman.

But when he got to DePaul, he began to understand that they also were out to “change the narrative of the program.”

“We know that’s the thing we’re trying to do, to turn the program around and make it something new that people have never seen before,” said Blocker, who’s averaging 12 points and 3.7 assists. “Coach is hard on us because of those expectations of the winning culture. That’s what the coaches are trying to install and bring to this program.”

Holtmann told that group he would be harder on them in Year 2 as his expectations climbed, and Blocker said they accept that because they believe “it just comes from a place of love.”

DePaul guard Layden Blocker (2) flexes after helping to grab a rebound in the second half against Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 2026, at Wintrust Arena. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

“He’s not one of those coaches that’s going to beat you up, beat you up, beat you up,” Blocker said. “He’s going to also encourage you and give you confidence to go out there and play and be the best version of yourself.”

Holtmann didn’t have specific benchmarks when he took over the job, but he had goals.

He wanted to get above single-digit wins in the first year for proof of concept. In the second year, he wanted to shrink the competitive gap within conference play because there were too many blowouts for his liking in Year 1. And he wanted to put forth a style of play that was enjoyable to watch.

“We want to be a hard-playing, hard-nosed team that’s going to beat you up on the defensive end,” Blocker said. “That’s our strength as a team, guarding and defending. Once we buy into that, we’re going to be a hard team to beat.”

After going 14-20 overall and 4-16 in the Big East in Holtmann’s first season, DePaul is on pace to better that at 12-9 and 4-6 entering Saturday’s game at Xavier. The Blue Demons are No. 109 in the NET rankings. Three of their six conference losses were by single digits. The other three were to No. 2 Connecticut twice and No. 25 St. John’s.

On Tuesday they’ll be back at Wintrust Arena for a big game against St. John’s with a four-game home winning streak on the line. At halftime, DePaul will retire the jersey of Rod Strickland, a two-time All-American who led three NCAA Tournament teams from 1985-88.

Perhaps a celebration of DePaul’s past can help the Blue Demons keep building for their future.

“We’ve been trying to change the culture and environment at Wintrust, and we’re finally starting to get some wins, finally starting to get our rhythm and momentum going,” Gunn said after the win over Marquette. “So for the school and the students to have our back and come in here and fight just like us, man, it makes us want to fight even harder.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/chris-holtmann-depaul-turnaround/ 

MOBILE, Ala. — Nothing would surprise me this offseason for the Chicago Bears, whose window to contention is open after reaching the divisional round of the NFL playoffs this season.

They finally have a talented quarterback capable of elevating those around him, and if Year 2 with coach Ben Johnson brings Caleb Williams to new heights, the Bears will be well-positioned for years to come.

The most obvious task for general manager Ryan Poles last year — after landing Johnson as the replacement for the fired Matt Eberflus — was clear to all observers. Poles had to stop using patches on the offensive line, something the Bears had been doing before his arrival, and repour the foundation in front of Williams.

It was a job well done with trades for guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and the signing of center Drew Dalman in free agency. Left tackle looms as a question after second-round pick Ozzy Trapilo suffered a torn patellar tendon in his left knee in the wild-card round. Rehabilitation is expected to carry into next season — more on that situation in a little bit.

While the O-line was the unmistakable first order of business for Poles when he arrived in Mobile for the 2025 Senior Bowl, it’s less clear this year. Edge rusher? Defensive tackle? Left tackle? Secondary?

When I say nothing would surprise me, some will interpret that as code for a splash move in the weeks and months to come. Trade for a marquee defensive lineman? Make a power-play move in free agency? Don’t rule anything out, but I’d probably set odds against both.

“We want to stay flexible,” Poles said after the season. “We want to stay open-minded. We want to stay committed to building this team the right way because I think that’s the best way to sustain success.”

It also wouldn’t surprise me if the Bears pick their spots in free agency — there isn’t an overwhelming crop of star players who will be available — and focus on adding another strong draft class.

The Bears got more out of their 2025 draft class, from top to bottom, than they have from an entire group in a long time. That bodes well for the future of a roster that has lacked young building blocks, players who provide exceptional value during their rookie deals before earning second contracts.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, tight end Cole Kmet and nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon are the only current Bears who were drafted by the team and earned a second contract. Former GM Ryan Pace drafted Johnson and Kmet.

Right tackle Darnell Wright is a good bet to join that group this offseason now that the 2023 first-round pick is eligible for a second contract. More Poles draft picks figure to be rewarded down the road.

As the Bears prepare for an offseason in which Poles said there will be more “constraints” because of the salary-cap situation, they need the value of having core players on rookie deals. When you look to the future and the possibility of discussing a second contract for Williams as early as next offseason, it’s even more imperative to hit on draft picks because those “constraints” are heightened once the quarterback is on a massive deal.

Twelve NFL quarterbacks have a 2026 cap hit of $46 million or more. For comparison, Williams will count $10,768,925 against the Bears cap next season.

So when I say nothing would surprise me, really anything is possible. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Poles, who has been aggressive in the past, will pounce with a huge move designed to transform a defense that coordinator Dennis Allen did a really nice job with in Year 1, all things considered.

Or perhaps the Bears will lean into “draft and develop” with Ben Johnson and his staff and pick their spots with free agency and potential trades, feeling good about the group they already have that was one play away from reaching the NFC championship game.

10 thoughts from the Senior Bowl after spending the last four days chatting with folks across the league.

1. The next big NFL event — after the Super Bowl — is free agency, and it’s not a banner class.

Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson gestures during a game against the Steelers on Jan. 4, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (Matt Durisko/AP)

That doesn’t mean huge dollars won’t be flying around March 11 when the new league year begins. A list of the top projected free agents has names such as George Pickens, Trey Hendrickson, Tyler Linderbaum, Daniel Jones, Jaelan Phillips and Alec Pierce.

Pickens had a breakout 1,429-yard season for the Dallas Cowboys in 2025 but was viewed as a bit of a malcontent at times in Pittsburgh. Hendrickson, 31, underwent core muscle surgery after his season was derailed by a hip injury. Linderbaum is a standout center for the Baltimore Ravens, but center is not considered a premium position.

Jones probably has a market of one team — the Indianapolis Colts. Phillips is an athletic defensive end but had only five sacks last season between the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins. Pierce was a big-play threat for the Colts, but the Glenbard West alumnus is a straight-line runner.

“Not a great year for free agency,” one general manager said Tuesday as he walked into Whitney Hancock Stadium for practice. “I wouldn’t want to count on turning around my team with guys you’re going to wind up having to overpay to sign.”

Added an assistant GM: “This is really what free agency has kind of become. Look back over the past couple years. The guys that are actually available, it’s really never a list that’s going to blow you away. It’s the old deal where you’re better off with the devil you know than the devil you don’t. So teams are re-signing their own guys and there just aren’t many guys in their prime, healthy and coming off productive seasons that are even out there.

“Then you have to pay such a premium to have a chance for the guys that might fit that profile and are really good players that haven’t reached (age) 30. That’s why most teams, the good ones that have a clue what the hell they are doing, they really pick and choose.”

The good news for the Bears is they’re no longer desperately seeking building blocks in free agency to turn around the roster and upgrade the culture in the locker room. The team has spent far too much for far too little in free agency over much of the last 15 years. It’s reflected in the record — and in the fact the Bears rarely have landed compensatory draft picks.

The Bears have reached the point at which they can be more selective in free agency, and the timing is good because they’re tighter against the cap. Yes, they can make moves to free up plenty of space, but the bill always comes due.

It’s because they’re snug against the cap — and because Hendrickson is on the downside of his career, coming off a season marred by injury — that I’m skeptical the Bears would be involved with him. I chatted with a good handful of personnel folks around town, and let’s just say the buzz for Hendrickson that exists on social media wasn’t matched in those conversations.

Chicago Bears roster breakdown: How the defensive players fared in 2025 — and their contract statuses for 2026

The Bears’ offseason focus starts on the defensive line, in my opinion — both edge and tackle. It stands to reason they will seek a blend of veterans and draft picks to augment what they have. Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson were pretty emphatic in their support for defensive end Montez Sweat, who came on after a slow statistical start to the season through five games.

The way Sweat began, it was inching toward the point where you would start to wonder if he had a future on the roster in 2026. But then he had at least one sack in four consecutive games and started affecting the quarterback and pocket more regularly. Maybe he’s not the dominant force the Bears dreamed of when they acquired him, but not many teams trade elite pass rushers, the Cowboys and Jerry Jones excluded.

Austin Booker will be really interesting next season — he really came on when he finally got onto the field at midseason. He looked good early in training camp, suffered a knee injury and sort of fell into that trap where he was out of sight and out of mind for a new coaching staff that didn’t know a ton about him.

Booker had 4½ sacks and eight quarterback hits in the final six games, playoffs included, and remains a bit of a wild stallion. But the Bears consider him very coachable and eager, and he plays with a high motor. His ceiling has only gone up since the start of his rookie season.

But the Bears need to add to their group of edge rushers because who knows when Dayo Odeyingbo will be coming back from a torn Achilles tendon. The same goes with 2025 second-round pick Shemar Turner and his return from a torn ACL. If everyone is healthy and productive and a newcomer or two is in the mix, that’s a great problem for Dennis Allen and defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett.

It’s a little early to start linking names to the Bears who are anything but random guesses, but the draft is deep on the defensive line and they will have multiple options in free agency.

“That’s an area we’re going to continue to press and get better,” Poles said on Jan. 21 when asked about the pass rush. “I look forward to Shemar getting back and Dayo getting back. I thought Sweat did a good job this year. I think sometimes we get hung up on sacks, and sacks are important — he did get into double digits (11 including playoffs) — but I think his all-around game was good.

“The way he defended the run, defended the perimeter as well as applied pressure was good. But we need him to continue to get better too. So we’ll evaluate everything, but that’s always — O-line, D-line — that’s always a space where we want to get better.”

2. The four best prospects here, in some order, are probably Clemson defensive end T.J. Parker, Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter, Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks and Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood.

National team defensive end T.J. Parker of Clemson runs through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

I’ll get into Parker and some of the edge rushers here. He was the first name National coach Clint Hurtt mentioned Tuesday night after practice when asked who stood out to him on Day 1. Hurtt, the Eagles defensive line coach and a former D-line and outside linebackers coach for the Bears, has a pretty good idea what he’s looking at.

Hurtt sees Parker, who measured 6-foot-3½ and 263 pounds, as a complete defensive end. He certainly has the size and length Dennis Allen seems to seek.

“Parker is an every-down player as a rookie,” said Hurtt, who interviewed last week for the Dolphins defensive coordinator job. “He can set edges in the run game. He’s got some suddenness, so he can beat blocks with power or a beat a guy across his face. He’s got good rush ability and he has the power to run over a tackle, which to me is critical. You’ve got to be able to do that.

“Everybody goes crazy for the super-fast, quick guys, but if they can’t run a tackle over to collapse the pocket on the QB, they struggle. He can do that.”

Parker had a huge sophomore season in 2024 with 11 sacks and 19½ tackles for a loss. That came after a 5½-sack freshman season. His sack total dropped to five in 2025, but in three seasons for the Tigers he amassed 21½ sacks and 41½ tackles for a loss.

“Not great this year, but I can’t unsee what I saw last year,” Senior Bowl director Drew Fabianich said. “That’s special rush tools. He’s twitchy for as long as he is. He’s good against the run. He’s got a great counter and a good toolbox. He’s a really good athlete for his size.”

Parker, 21, probably will fall between the end of Round 1 and somewhere in Round 2, but the draft process is really just getting going.

American team defensive end Zion Young of Missouri runs through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

Missouri’s Zion Young is another Senior Bowl player with the measurables to be a physical end that would seem to fit the prototype the Bears have been hunting. He measured 6-5¼ and 262 pounds and put together some strong performances with a long-arm move in one-on-one pass-rush drills. He’s one of many big, athletic defensive linemen Missouri has produced recently.

A transfer from Michigan State, Young had 6½ sacks last season and was second in the SEC with 17 tackles for a loss. He’s considered a plus run defender. A national scout who has been to Columbia, Mo., called him a good fit for any team. I asked about concern over a December DUI arrest and was told, “He’s a good kid. No character concerns.”

Young is probably a Day 2 pick, but the scout said: “He could sneak into Round 1. You’ve got to find 32 of them somewhere.” That comment is indicative of the draft not being stacked with high-end talent, so the rankings from, say, No. 15 to about No. 50 will be significantly different from team to team.

3. Mobile native Lee Hunter has been a popular player.

National team defensive tackle Lee Hunter of Texas Tech runs through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

He gained recognition playing for Texas Tech this past season after beginning his career as a redshirt at Auburn and then playing three years at Central Florida before transferring to Lubbock, Texas.

Hunter is 6-3½ and 320 pounds, and you don’t see many men that size who are nimble and quick on their feet. He was a fluid mover in practice and showed the strength and lower-body power to hold up against double teams, and I thought he looked like a guy who can develop a stronger base when he gets into an NFL strength program.

The Red Raiders had the highest-paid defensive line in college football last season, and while end David Bailey has a higher profile, keep an eye on Hunter in the next couple of months.

Hunter had a season-high seven tackles and two tackles for a loss in the Orange Bowl loss to Oregon and was proud to single that out as his best game of the season.

“You know how people say we didn’t play anyone at Texas Tech?” Hunter said. “That was a game where I had a chip on my shoulder and my why — why I play football.”

Hunter plays the run well and can move laterally. His pass skills are raw — he had 2½ sacks last season — but the tools are there.

“I call him ‘Big Sexy’ because he’s got a little pass rush to him,” Drew Fabianich said. “For as big of a man as he is … there are not a lot of big guys like that (who) actually have pass rush to them. Most are going to rush you right down the middle. They can push the pocket but can they actually beat a guy?

“Lee can beat a guy. He can run and he can track dudes. He’ll probably run 5 (seconds) flat (in the 40-yard dash at the scouting combine).”

American team defensive tackle Caleb Banks of Florida runs through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

There are other impressive defensive tackles, but none stands out physically like Florida’s Caleb Banks, who is 6-6 and 335 pounds with 35-inch arms. He has some monster measurables, but scouts say he has been inconsistent. A foot injury limited him to three games last season, but he flashed a bunch in 2024. Some of his inconsistency is against the run, but if he gets in the right system with the right coaching, look out.

“He’s going to be a really nice piece because he’s got a lot of positional flexibility,” Fabianich said. “He can play from the nose all the way out to the five (technique) and wreck people. He’s enormous with great hands.”

Banks feels like a boom-or-bust prospect, a guy who probably comes off the board on Day 2. If he hits, you’re talking about the kind of elite player a defensive line can be constructed around. If he doesn’t, you’re looking at someone like another big and athletic Florida Gator, the Bears’ Gervon Dexter Sr., who flashes at times but tends to disappear every now and then as well.

4. The other player Clint Hurtt mentioned who jumped out to him right away was Pitt linebacker Kyle Louis.

National team linebacker Kyle Louis of Pittsburgh runs through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

Linebacker looms as a likely need for the Bears this offseason. The front office will have some tough roster decisions to make as it weighs salary-cap implications. As good as Tremaine Edmunds played in the first half of the season before a groin injury forced him to spend four weeks on injured reserve, he could be a potential cap casualty.

Edmunds was signed to a four-year, $72 million contract in 2023, and he has a $13.9 million base salary for 2026 with a $1 million roster bonus and $100,000 workout bonus for a total of $15 million in cash. If the Bears release him, they would create $15 million in cap space, and as much as they like a defender with such a good combination of height, length and range at the second level, his status looks tenuous from my vantage point.

If the Bears elect to move on from Edmunds — and they haven’t even gotten into personnel meetings at this point — I would expect such a move well before the start of free agency out of respect for the player.

There are more moving parts at the position. T.J. Edwards, who got a contract extension last offseason, will be returning from a broken fibula. D’Marco Jackson proved to be a valuable fill-in and is headed to free agency. Maybe the Bears will try to re-sign Jackson to a modest deal and add a linebacker via the draft.

Circling back to Louis, he’s an interesting prospect and maybe the best linebacker here. He was an All-American at Pitt in 2024, when he had 101 tackles, seven sacks and four interceptions. He followed that up with 81 tackles, three sacks and two picks this past season.

Louis measured at 5-11¾ and 224 pounds this week. That’s a shade smaller than the Bears list Ruben Hyppolite II (6 feet, 236). Hyppolite had a disappointing rookie season after the Bears drafted him in the fourth round out of Maryland. Hyppolite was not invited to the combine but was clocked as fast as 4.39 seconds in the 40-yard dash at his pro day, and the Bears bought into that speed and athleticism.

Louis’ production in college far exceeds what Hyppolite did, although the size is a fair question. Louis told me he played at between 215 and 220 pounds during the college season, and a few teams have asked him about his weight and how he feels about playing with a little more heft on his frame.

“I am a ballplayer as I am right now,” Louis said. “Regardless of what my weight is, I feel like I can win in any situation. Whatever team that drafts me, they’re going to get the best version of me. I am prepared to adjust to any situation.”

Said Hurtt: “He’s small. He’s probably not going to be great for every system out there. But you put him in an attack scheme or something like Lovie (Smith) and Rod Marinelli’s old system, where he can be the weak-side linebacker always playing behind the three-technique and he can just go run and hit stuff? Yes, he’s got some dynamic skills.”

The Bears talk about wanting players who love football. It’s cliche and it will generate headlines the next time a team says that isn’t a prerequisite for employment, but Louis oozes football junkie when you talk with him. His passion for the game is unmistakable.

Interestingly, the National team has used him at nickel a little as well, something he did in Pitt’s scheme. I don’t see a future for him as an NFL nickel back, but it reflects his versatility, something that excites defensive coaching staffs.

“Everything has been going really smooth here,” said Louis, who said his goal for the combine is to run the 40 in the 4.4 range. “Just learning new things every day and having fun out here. Anyone in front of me, I am just looking for a will to win.”

5. The Bears figure to be in the market for a safety in both the draft and free agency.

Bears safety Kevin Byard III intercepts a pass against the Raiders on Sept. 28, 2025, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

All four safeties on the 2025 roster are out of contract, so some combination of veterans and youth makes sense to rebuild the position.

First they need to see if re-signing Kevin Byard III, who will be 33 in August, makes sense for both parties after he led the NFL with seven interceptions and was an All-Pro selection.

As fantastic as Byard was, I don’t know that he’ll have a robust market in free agency considering his age. If he were 27 or 28, it would be a totally different story. He just completed a two-year, $15 million contract, and it’s worth wondering if something a little above that works, with say 60% of it guaranteed. The Bears even could add some dummy years to the end of the contract to lower his salary-cap hit.

It’s usually a position with plenty of experienced options in free agency, and that’s the case again with the Bears’ Jaquan Brisker available along with players such as Coby Bryant (Seattle Seahawks), Kam Curl (Los Angeles Rams), Jaylinn Hawkins (New England Patriots), Bryan Cook (Kansas City Chiefs), Jalen Thompson (Arizona Cardinals) and many others.

Ryan Poles has drafted three safeties: Brisker (2022, Round 2), Elijah Hicks (2022, Round 7) and Kendall Williamson (2023, Round 7). The Bears have selected only one other safety — Eddie Jackson (2017, Round 4) — in the last nine drafts.

It’s a dramatic shift from how the team used to treat the position. In the 11 drafts GM Jerry Angelo oversaw, the Bears selected nine safeties, including one each year from 2005 through 2011: Chris Harris (2005, Round 6), Danieal Manning (2006, Round 2), Kevin Payne (2007, Round 5), Craig Steltz (2008, Round 4), Al Afalava (2009, Round 6), Major Wright (2010, Round 3) and Chris Conte (2011, Round 3).

The team was basically plugging in a rookie starter each season under coach Lovie Smith, sometimes replacing the guy it had drafted the previous year with a newcomer.

Veteran scouts will tell you it’s a difficult position to draft — more challenging than you might think.

“It takes so much tape because for a 65-play game, they don’t do (crap) for 40 plays,” an assistant GM said. “If offensive coordinators come through the quarterback room — and we know what a difficult position quarterback is to evaluate — defensive coordinators often come through the DB room because you have to understand the whole field. You have to understand the concept and what is being asked, what coverage are they running.

“With cornerbacks, you are hyperfocused on the movement traits and leverage and is he reading stems and all that. Safety, if you don’t have an experienced guy evaluating them, you’re in trouble because there is so much nuance to it. There’s so much focus on leverage, technique, where his eyes are. It’s not just traits and, ‘OK, this guy can run. He works.’”

The assistant GM provided a good example. It was from a free-agent meeting, but the point translates to scouting safeties for the draft as well. His team was reviewing Xavier McKinney in free agency in 2024 after the New York Giants didn’t re-sign the former second-round pick.

“We had some junior scouts do him in free agency and they were banging him,” the assistant GM said. “We were sitting there and we let these guys talk, but it was like, ‘Whoa!’ And then when it came around to my turn, I said, ‘This guy is out of our range, and McKinney is going to become the highest-paid safety in the league in free agency.’

“The traits were average to above average. They weren’t great. But the player is really good. You have to understand the game and what’s being asked and what he’s trying to defend.”

Evaluation of game tape requires discipline too. It requires an understanding of not only how the safety is performing, but as important, what he’s being asked to do.

“That’s why it’s difficult from a bias standpoint,” the assistant GM said. “Say you’ve got a guy who has a label as a box safety. Maybe he’s not a true over-the-top player, but is he good enough to do it?

“If you just kind of take shortcuts and let your bias tell you, because of the way the defensive coordinator is playing him, you say: ‘This is just a box guy. Run the alley and fit. Go hit somebody.’

“But you have to keep watching and you have to start seeing. You have to dig in on it. I need to see 50 plays of him playing in quarters, playing in the post, playing two vertical. I just can’t assume he can’t do it. And it’s especially hard in college because they’re not getting coached that well outside of Georgia, Alabama and a handful of good schools. So is this guy not smart or is he just being coached poorly? Like quarterback, it’s such a mental position. It’s a hard position to play.

“And I’m always skeptical of the, ‘We’ll try him at cornerback and if he doesn’t work there or he loses a step, we’ll move him to safety.’ Too many times it just doesn’t work because the eyes are so different and the keys are different. The whole thing is different.”

Ohio State safety Caleb Downs lines up for a play against Marshall on Sept. 21, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (Gregory Payan/AP)

5b. Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren was scheduled to participate in the Senior Bowl but backed out because of a minor groin injury. That was disappointing because he’s a potential late Round 1 pick or a Day 2 selection. The Rockets have produced some pretty good defensive backs recently, including standout Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, who was here at the Senior Bowl two years ago.

The best safety in the draft class is Ohio State’s Caleb Downs, who is not in Mobile. Downs, who played his first season at Alabama before transferring, could be off the board before the Bears select at No. 25.

“He’s really frickin’ talented, man,” a national scout said of Downs. “I think he’s as smart and as good of a player as Nick Saban ever had. It was the same way Nick and Minkah (Fitzpatrick) were tight. That’s the way Saban and Caleb were tight.

“The only thing he’s lacking is he’s not a blazer. He’s probably not going to run real fast. But the dude is a really good football player and he has been since Day 1 and he’s really smart and you can play him a lot of different ways.”

Said Drew Fabianich: “If I needed a safety, I would take him early in Round 1. But even if I didn’t need one, he’d probably be the third-best defensive player on the board. The Bears might not have a shot at him. Caleb Downs is as close to an Ed Reed as I have seen in quite a while.”

Oregon’s Dillon Thieneman, Penn State’s Zakee Wheatley and LSU’s A.J. Haulcy are other names to keep in mind. Pitt linebacker Kyle Louis, whom I detailed above, could project as a box safety for some teams.

6. It’s easy to plug a hole with an experienced starter if you need a safety, wide receiver, guard, tight end — a lot of positions. It’s a lot more difficult to find an experienced left tackle.

Bears offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo (75) and defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka warm up before a game against the Giants on Nov. 9, 2025, at Soldier Field. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

That’s the boat the Bears are in if they’re looking for a starting left tackle for the bulk of the 2026 season while Ozzy Trapilo works his way back to health. It’s way too early to guess at a timeline for his return, and all we have to go off of is Ryan Poles saying it would go “deep” into the season.

If the Bears were pleased with the progress Trapilo was making — and offensive line coach Dan Roushar said he thought the playoff game against the Green Bay Packers was maybe Trapilo’s best of the season — it stands to reason the organization wants to give him a shot at left tackle when he’s healthy and ready to roll. If that isn’t the evaluation — and those meetings are still a ways off with the coaching staff off until after the Super Bowl — then it’s back to the drawing board at the position.

For the sake of discussion, let’s operate with the idea the Bears believe it’s arrow up for Trapilo when healthy. Then what? I don’t see an in-house option who’s under contract. Sure, Theo Benedet and Kiran Amegadjie will be in position to compete for jobs, but they haven’t done enough to this point to be viewed as the solution.

The Bears won’t want to move right tackle Darnell Wright to the left side as a stop-gap measure. They played Joe Thuney there against the Rams in the playoffs, but I’d view that as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency deal. Thuney isn’t going to play left tackle in Week 1 come September.

Chicago Bears roster breakdown: How the offensive players fared in 2025 — and their contract statuses for 2026

On the market, finding a left tackle you can trust, who has experience and is healthy would be expensive. Reality is any good ones will be scooped up by teams not looking for what might be a one-year bridge player.

It’s worth wondering if the Bears would consider bringing back Braxton Jones, which potentially could aid both parties. The current coaching staff hasn’t seen Jones fully healthy. He pressed all offseason to return from a fractured ankle in time for training camp. He battled in an effort to get stronger, and I don’t think he ever got there before he was benched just before halftime of the Week 4 game in Las Vegas. Then a minor knee injury during a practice in October led to an IR stint.

Jones didn’t have the kind of season he was hoping for in a contract year. A one-year deal to return to the Bears healthy and play in place of Trapilo could give him the opportunity to restore his market value.

I don’t know how the front office and coaching staff view Jones. I don’t even know if this is something that would be on the table. The team surely will consider a series of options — and not all of them will be great. Kicking around the possibility of a reunion with Jones makes sense because, again, finding left tackles you like can be an expensive proposition. At least they know Jones and how he fits in their locker room.

7. Discourse surrounding wide receiver DJ Moore’s future spun out of control after the playoff loss to the Rams.

Bears wide receiver DJ Moore makes the game-winning touchdown catch in overtime against the Packers on Dec. 20, 2025, at Soldier Field. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

The optics weren’t great. Moore, who wasn’t 100%, didn’t look like he was running his hardest on the deep-over route in overtime when Caleb Williams expected him to flatten it off, and Rams safety Kam Curl came up with a really nice interception.

Overlooked were the 34-yard reception Moore made on the first play from scrimmage, the touchdown he scored and the one-handed catch he made against the Rams. And maybe the Bears don’t beat the Packers in either the wild-card round or the regular-season game at Soldier Field without Moore. He had a fourth-down grab and the go-ahead 25-yard touchdown in the playoff game. He made a contested catch with cornerback Keisean Nixon draped all over him in overtime of the regular-season game on the precision deep ball from Williams.

The production doesn’t match the four-year, $110 million contract extension Moore signed early in 2024 training camp, but production for all of the skill-position players has been down a bit the last two years, and the Bears had a lot of guys to spread the ball around to this season.

Releasing Moore isn’t an option. Trading him would create $16.5 million in cap savings if it happened before June 1. If a deal were done after June 1, it would free up $24.5 million in cap space. The after-June-1 figure sounds more appealing, but the Bears could be more in need of cap space in March and April than June and July.

I don’t believe the Bears view trading Moore as addition by subtraction. Given that his $23,485,000 base salary for 2026 is fully guaranteed, I don’t see them being able to get a lot back in terms of a draft pick. You can’t look at Moore’s production the last two seasons and say the Bears should trade him and then turn around and expect a haul in return.

For what it’s worth, $15.5 million of Moore’s $23,485,000 base salary in 2027 becomes guaranteed if he’s on the roster March 13. So he effectively has $38,985,000 guaranteed for the next two seasons.

What has been lost in the Moore discussion is he’s the anti-diva receiver. He didn’t peep once about Justin Fields when the passing game was a complete mess. He hasn’t complained about a lack of targets the last two seasons. He answers the bell almost every Sunday. He plays through minor injuries.

If the Bears become hard-pressed for cap space, maybe trading Moore would emerge as a possibility. But I think that’s what would precipitate a deal, not any desire to dump him. The best-case scenario might be that the final offensive play against the Rams is a good learning experience, a play Ben Johnson said he needed to coach better.

8. Reconnecting with folks I’ve known for a long time in Mobile, commentary regarding the Bears season was overwhelming.

Bears coach Ben Johnson walks in the tunnel before an NFC divisional-round playoff game against the Rams on Jan. 18, 2026, at Soldier Field. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

“It’s amazing what kind of difference a coach can make,” said a senior scout for another team who spent time with the Bears long ago.

“Ben Johnson is always looking for the knockout blow,” said a national scout for another team who also used to work for the Bears. “He’s in that special group of play callers, the guys that want to put you away.”

What I found really interesting is how one scouting director, late in the regular season, lauded Johnson’s ability to set things up throughout a game.

“It’s jab, jab, jab and then — boom,” he said.

It got me thinking how Johnson devised game plans to build plays off of each other, marrying runs to passes and constantly creating conflict for the defense.

“Part of that is even pregame planning,” Bears passing game coordinator Press Taylor said before the Rams game. “His game-planning process of, ‘I am going to show you this in the first half to be able to get to this other thing in the second half.’

“Or maybe sometimes we don’t want you to be able to adjust to something we’re going to do. So maybe Ben holds something to throw at the defense in the second half that we have kind of a series off of or a package off of. If we do it in the first half, they’ve got time to adjust and they can talk about it. Where, if you wait and you spring it on them in the second half, the defense is just trying to handle an offense drive to drive at that point.”

Veteran tight end Durham Smythe described it as an art, with the play caller preparing a strategy but then having the vision and flexibility to adjust with material the players can easily handle.

“The thing with very talented play callers, which he obviously is, is they go into the game with a plan, maybe not intentionally trying to throw jabs,” Smythe said. “You’re going in with your plan. The difference is some guys calling plays are just going to stay with what they have that day. Ben will come in with a plan. Sometimes it’s working great and the plan is the plan.

“If not, he knows how to switch it up and what to call. He knows how to make adjustments on the fly. People overrate halftime in the NFL. You hear all these guys saying, ‘They changed everything at halftime.’ As players, you don’t really know anything is changing. But the coaches throughout the game, specifically play callers, do make adjustments.

“It happened multiple times this season. The Packers, the second time we played them, did some things with six down (linemen) and stuff with their front that we knew they had in their arsenal but we were not necessarily expecting them to do as much. The run game for a while was struggling and we never really hit our stride, but the flow started to come in the second half. That’s one recently.”

9. A couple of weeks ago, I underestimated how wild the NFL coaching cycle would get.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, right, stands on the sideline during an AFC wild-card playoff game against the Texans on Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

In a conversation with a personnel man for another team, we agreed there probably wouldn’t be as many openings this year as there were in the recent past — seven in 2025, eight in 2024, five in 2023 and 10 in 2022. Six seemed like a pretty safe number.

“But it’s not going to be too long before the number is double digits most years,” I said. “It’s crazy how fast things turn over now.”

The personnel man didn’t disagree. Little did we know the league would have 10 openings this offseason with Mike Tomlin stepping down in Pittsburgh after a wild-card loss and the Buffalo Bills firing Sean McDermott after a loss in the divisional round. That ties the most in NFL history after 10 in 2022 (when the Bears hired Matt Eberflus), 2006, 1997 and 1978. Of the 10 hires made in 2022, only the Minnesota Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles remain on the job.

Owners are becoming more and more like fans. They’re impatient and they want a turnaround to start yesterday. The volume of change is head-spinning, and there’s a trickle-down effect as changes mean new coordinators, new position coaches, etc.

That’s what makes the Bears’ fortuitous hiring of Ben Johnson last year such a big deal. If Year 1 is a sign of success to come, the powers that be at Halas Hall are in great shape moving forward as more and more teams have a quick trigger with their head coaches. There wasn’t a red-hot candidate in this hiring cycle like Johnson was a year ago. A couple of them might shine as great hires come 2027 or 2028. Inevitably, six or seven of those 10 teams will have a new coach by 2029 — if not sooner.

Now the question is when there will be 11 or 12 head coaching changes in one offseason. It’s trending in that direction. Makes for good business for the agents who represent coaches, that’s for sure.

10. Houston tight end Tanner Koziol is a Bears fan for another three months or so until he gets drafted.

Central Florida defensive back Phillip Dunnam returns an interception on a pass intended for Houston tight end Tanner Koziol, right, on Nov. 7, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

A transfer from Ball State, Koziol began his high school career at Lake Park before transferring to Nazareth, where he played with Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy. When COVID-19 hit, Koziol moved to Fortville, Ind., to play at Mt. Vernon High School. He had drawn interest from North Dakota, Valparaiso and San Diego and was hopeful a senior season of high school action would get him more attention. It worked as Ball State stepped forward with an offer.

Koziol, who measured 6-6½ and 245 pounds this week, played three seasons for the Cardinals and caught 94 passes for 839 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior before transferring to Houston for his senior season.

“I loved my time at Ball State and was with really good coaches, really good people,” Koziol said. “I also wanted to prove to myself that I know I can play with these guys (from larger programs). Obviously, we played out-of-conference games and that’s where you know: ‘This is the same guy. Just a different name on their chest.’ Houston is where I really learned not to fear anybody. It’s the same sport. Same ball.”

Koziol performed well for the Cougars with 74 catches for 727 yards and six touchdowns, and now he’s part of a deep and talented class of tight ends. He marveled at the season the Bears had and said he enjoyed following Colston Loveland, whom he had watched closely at Michigan because of his relationship with McCarthy.

10a. The Ravens put in a request to interview Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle for the same role on new coach Jesse Minter’s staff. It sounds like there’s a chance Doyle will pass on the opportunity and most likely stay put with the Bears for at least one more season.

Doyle withdrew from consideration for the same role with the Eagles, with whom he did interview. At least one other team with a new head coach had some interest in Doyle, but the word that team got was that he planned to stay where he is.

Defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator Al Harris is also likely to remain with the Bears. He interviewed for the defensive coordinator jobs in Green Bay and Washington. New staffs still are being formed around the league, so there’s still a possibility for movement, but it looks like the vast majority of Bears coaches will return.

Keep an eye on Eric Studesville and Duce Staley as possibilities for the running backs coach vacancy on Ben Johnson’s staff. Studesville was an assistant for the Bears from 1997-2000 and worked with Johnson in Miami. Some wondered if the Dolphins would look to keep Studesville on new coach Jeff Hafley’s staff, but they hired Ladell Betts as their running backs coach.

Staley has been with the Cleveland Browns the last two seasons. He worked with Johnson in Detroit in 2021 and 2022.

.

With assistant GM Ian Cunningham departing to become the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, the Bears have an opening. Cunningham traveled to Mobile with Ryan Poles and vice president of football administration Matt Feinstein before his final interview with the Falcons.

We’ll see what happens at Halas Hall. It would be natural for director of player personnel Jeff King to be elevated to the assistant GM role. King, who joined the organization as a scouting intern in 2015, interviewed for the Los Angeles Chargers GM job in 2024.

Bears offensive tackle Darnell Wright clears out his locker Jan. 19, 2026, at Halas Hall after the season ended with a loss to the Rams in an NFC divisional playoff game. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

10b. It’s a big offseason for right tackle Darnell Wright, who was a second-team All-Pro pick.

The Bears likely will exercise the fifth-year option in his contract and then would be expected to sign him to a multiyear extension. Wright’s third season was easily his best despite playing most of the year with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, missing only the Week 4 game in Las Vegas.

Wright is uncertain if he will undergo surgery during the offseason.

“We’re doing some stuff,” he said on locker-room cleanout day. “We’re looking at it. We’ll just have to go and see. I don’t know if it’s a maybe or not. Just depends on what they see.”

Wright played with a large brace on his right arm and gradually got a little bit stronger as the season wore on.

“It healed up a little bit,” he said. “That was good.”

Wright took well to the coaching provided by Dan Roushar and showed more consistency than he did during his first two seasons.

“His football IQ has really grown, and that’s a credit to those guys in the room and how he’s gone about his business,” Roushar said. “He has matured as a person over my first encounter. He used to probably not ask questions when he should have asked questions. Now in the meeting room when things are presented to him, if he doesn’t understand, there’s no inhibition. He’s like: ‘Hey, Coach, explain that. Why are we doing that?’

“The other thing is his practice habits, although they can become better, they’ve grown over the course of the season. He’s a competitive guy. He wants to do things well. He’s very prideful. I see a guy that’s still ascending. He’s had a nice year but there’s a lot of good football left in that kid.”

Wright agreed he’s probably more assertive in the meeting room, perhaps easier with the strong veteran additions the Bears made.

“Dan makes it very easy to ask him a question,” Wright said. “People say there is no question that is stupid or whatever. He will explain the smallest of anything I have or the biggest of any question I have.

“Me and him have some of the same traits, I would say. He’s been great for me. At least for me, I know what it takes to win, to give yourself a chance. There’s stuff I can build on for sure.”

10c. Terell Smith has a five-month head start on Ozzy Trapilo in recovering from a torn patellar tendon in his left knee.

The cornerback, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, missed the entire season after suffering his injury in the second preseason game Aug. 17 against the Bills. Ryan Poles indicated in his news conference last week that the target is for Smith to return to full strength at some point during the offseason. It’s fair to wonder if that date will fall closer to the start of training camp in July than the opening of the voluntary offseason program on April 20.

“I am back running on the field,” Smith said Jan. 19 when players were cleaning out their lockers. “Doing deceleration work, acceleration work. I am getting back right. It’s going to be a big offseason and season coming up for me.”

Smith was in the mix for playing time — although Nahshon Wright was getting the bulk of snaps with the starters during the offseason and the start of camp — when he was injured. He was coming on, though, with four pass breakups in the joint practice with the Dolphins and another in the first preseason game versus Miami.

Smith said he had gotten Trapilo’s cellphone number that day and planned to reach out to offer insight into what’s ahead for the offensive tackle.

“Hopefully his rehab is smooth too,” Smith said.

10d. The league could release the salary cap for 2026 before the Super Bowl. The target figure most have discussed is right around $300 million.

10e. One reaction to Bill Belichick reportedly being snubbed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee in his first year of eligibility, besides the fact it’s ridiculous: The NFL is fortunate this story has some space to breathe. Had the bomb dropped next week, it would have hijacked multiple news cycles when the league wants the focus squarely on the Super Bowl.

10f. What kind of travel challenges can lower-level scouts have at this time of year? Those who were in the Dallas area for the East-West Shrine Bowl practices that began last weekend faced a dilemma when many flights out were canceled. What normally would be about an 8½-hour drive to Mobile was 13 hours because of the road conditions in Texas.

10g. Some shops have opened futures wagers for Super Bowl XLI in 2027. At Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, the Bears were 25-1 along with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Fourteen teams had shorter odds, with the Bills, Rams and Seahawks all 10-1. At DraftKings, the Bears were +2200 (22-1), also with 14 teams having shorter odds. The Rams and Seahawks were +950, the Bills +1000.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/chicago-bears-senior-bowl-brad-biggs-10-thoughts/ 

General manager Chris Getz believes the Chicago White Sox are positioned to “make a meaningful step forward.”.

“You look at what we were able to accomplish in the second half (of 2025) with the additions that we have,” Getz said Thursday. “(Manager) Will (Venable) and the staff and the process they have in place, we talk about his pathway to victory on a nightly basis. The environment that he creates within that clubhouse allows the players to go out there and just do what they have to do that day to win ballgames.

“We’ve added to the group of talent currently there. The process is only getting stronger. We do feel like we are going to take another step forward.”

The Sox went 60-102 last season. They had a .330 winning percentage in the first half (32-65) and a .431 winning percentage (28-37) after the All-Star breaks as rookies such as shortstop Colson Montgomery, second baseman Chase Meidroth and catchers Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero made an impact.

Getz said those strides have carried over during the offseason.

“We felt like we’ve been able to take that momentum into the offseason,” he said. “It’s being able to bring in some free agents, executing on some transactions, getting the No. 1 pick (in the draft), just to kind of add to what we are doing. Will has done a tremendous job building a support staff that’s really going to serve our players.

“You look at some of the acquisitions from this offseason, whether it be (pitcher) Anthony Kay, (pitcher Sean) Newcomb, (infielder/outfielder Luisangel) Acuña, (first baseman Munetaka) Murakami of course, but some of those free-agent adds, they are guys that not only we feel like are going to bring present value but real upside there too.”

Getz and Venable looked back at the offseason and ahead to spring training — which begins with pitchers and catchers reporting to Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 10 — as SoxFest Live takes place this weekend at the Ramova Theatre in Bridgeport. Here are three takeaways from the sessions.

1. More activity could be on the way.

Getz entered the offseason hopeful the Sox would be active.

“You are at the mercy of so many different things, the free-agent market, which can affect the willingness to work out trades with clubs,” Getz said. “The best way to kind of summarize it is the players we acquired were targets but it was a pool of targets. It was more our process led to those players.

“And we feel really good because we’ve got players that have some real upside. It’s going to be interesting to see how Anthony Kay comes over from Japan. It’s going to be interesting to see how Murakami performs over here. We see the upside of it, with limited risk and downside. Where we are as an organization, we felt that was the best way to go about the offseason.”

White Sox general manager Chris Getz, right, smiles before posing for a photo with manager Will Venable and kids during a community event Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, at the Bartlett J. McCartin Boys & Girls Club in Bridgeport. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)

Getz said more moves could be on the way.

“I believe that there are going to be more adds,” he said. “To what level, unsure. We are continuing to have conversations with agents to bring in some more free agents. On top of that, we are having conversations with other teams with potentially trades as well. After we did the Luis (Robert Jr.) move and I said that we were going to be active, we’ve remained active.

“But we’ve had a lot of fruitful conversations with other clubs as well.”

2. The Sox see strong defense and offensive potential in possible Robert replacements.

Robert had been the team’s starting center fielder since 2020. They’ll go in a new direction after trading him to the New York Mets for Acuña and minor-league pitcher Truman Pauley.

Acuña has major-league experience starting at second base, shortstop and third. He has played shortstop and center field in winter ball.

“The more talent you bring in, guys that are versatile, just helps everyone be at their best,” Venable said.

Getz broke down some of the options for center field, including Acuña.

“(Acuña is) a very versatile defender,” Getz said. “He’s been very strong at shortstop and second base. He’s got instincts that’s going to make him a strong defender anywhere on the field. We’ve got Derek Hill, who has historically been a very good defender.

“We have Everson Pereira, who is a high level of prospect who hasn’t gotten a whole lot of runway at the major-league level who is a strong defender in center field and the wings. Those three guys right there we feel like we can cover plenty of ground and have some offensive potential. Brooks Baldwin has played center field and he’s getting more and more comfortable in the outfield. We’ll continue to look at availability on the market and trades as well.”

3. Who are the nonroster invitees to watch?

The Sox have 22 nonroster invitees, including seven coming in after signing minor-league deals this offseason. Getz said outfielder Jarred Kelenic and left-handed pitcher Ryan Borucki were among the standouts.

“(Kelenic is) a higher-profile player (first-round pick in 2018) that played in Seattle and Atlanta,” Getz said. “Hasn’t quite been able to tap into his potential, but we’re really excited to be able to work with him to be able to see what we can get out of Jarred and if he can help us out.”

Getz noted Borucki’s effectiveness against lefties.

In addition to Kelenic and Borucki, the nonroster invitees from outside of the organization include pitcher Tyson Miller, infielders Oliver Dunn, Tim Elko and LaMonte Wade Jr. and outfielder Dustin Harris.

“We know spring training will come and as we get to know these guys more, I’m sure there’s going to be other players that perhaps make a push for the opening-day roster,” Getz said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/chiacgo-white-sox-soxfest-takeaways-chris-getz-will-venable/ 

“Ready For De-Escalation”: Zelensky Ready To Accept Energy Ceasefire If Putin Will

Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/30/2026 – 06:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/ready-de-escalation-zelensky-ready-accept-energy-ceasefire-if-putin-will 

Por MARK BANCHEREAU

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — El líder militar de Níger acusó a los presidentes de Francia, Benín y Costa de Marfil de apoyar a grupos armados que atacaron una base de la fuerza aérea en la capital y causaron cuatro heridos y daños en un avión.

Las fuerzas locales respondieron rápidamente al asalto a primera hora del jueves, mataron a 20 de los atacantes y arrestaron a otros 11, según reportó la televisión estatal.

“Recordamos a los patrocinadores de esos mercenarios, que son Emmanuel Macron (presidente de Francia), Patrice Talon (presidente de Benín) y Alassane Ouattara (presidente de Costa de Marfil), que los hemos escuchado ladrar lo suficiente, y ahora deben estar preparados para escucharnos rugir”, dijo el líder de la junta militar, el general Abdourahamane Tchiani, en la televisora estatal el jueves por la noche.

El militar no ofreció evidencia alguna para respaldar su acusación.

Videos que parecían ser del lugar del ataque mostraban fuertes explosiones y un cielo resplandeciente tras las explosiones que comenzaron alrededor de la medianoche y duraron unas dos horas, en la zona del Aeropuerto Internacional Diori Hamani en Niamey, la capital del país de África Occidental.

El aeropuerto de Niamey es un centro estratégico que alberga bases militares, la sede de la Fuerza Conjunta Níger-Burkina Faso-Mali y un gran depósito de uranio que está en el centro de una disputa con la empresa nuclear francesa Orano.

La aerolínea Air Côte d’Ivoire indicó que una de sus aeronaves, estacionada en la pista del aeropuerto de Niamey, fue alcanzada durante el tiroteo, lo que le provocó daños en el fuselaje y el ala derecha.

La televisora estatal nigerina dijo que uno de los asaltantes muertos era ciudadano francés, mientras las imágenes mostraban varios cuerpos ensangrentados en el piso. No ofreció ninguna prueba.

Ningún grupo armado se ha atribuido la responsabilidad por el asalto.

Níger ha tratado de contener la letal violencia yihadista que afecta a parte de la región del Sahel. Sus vecinos Burkina Faso y Mali también están gobernados por juntas militares.

En 2025, insurgentes respaldados por Al Qaeda y el grupo extremista Estado Islámico intensificaron sus campañas en el Sahel, amenazando aún más la estabilidad de la frágil región y de Níger, que era el principal aliado de seguridad de Occidente en la zona hasta el golpe de Estado militar de 2023.

Desde su llegada al poder, la junta militar de Níger —como ocurrió con Mali y Burkina Faso— ha cortado lazos con Francia y otras potencias occidentales y han recurrido a Rusia en busca de apoyo militar para combatir las insurgencias.

Las juntas suelen acusar a los presidentes de Benín y Costa de Marfil, dos países de África Occidental con una estrecha relación con Francia, de actuar como representantes de París.

La sofisticación y audacia del ataque al aeropuerto en Níger, así como el posible uso de drones, sugieren que los asaltantes podrían haber tenido ayuda interna, dijo Ulf Laessing, jefe del programa Sahel en la Fundación Konrad Adenauer de Alemania.

Laessing indicó el viernes que los exitosos ataques previos en otras partes de la región parecen haber aumentado la confianza de los grupos, lo que les ha llevado a atacar objetivos más importantes y de mayor relevancia estratégica.

___

Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/lder-de-nger-acusa-a-francia-benn-y-costa-de-marfil-de-ataque-en-aeropuerto/