The Steelers’ decision to move quickly to give linebacker Nick Herbig a four-year, $100 million extension makes the organization’s feeling about the 2023 fourth-round pick clear. As to two other pass rushers on the Pittsburgh roster, it raises questions.
It’s the first time that a team has given a backup a $100 million contract. Which means that Herbig possibly won’t be a backup on Mike McCarthy’s initial official depth chart.
Linebacker T.J. Watt, a first-round pick in 2017, signed a three-year, $123 million extension in 2025. He’s making $41 million per year.
In 2023, linebacker Alex Highsmith (a third-round pick in 2020) signed a four-year, $68 million extension. His new-money APY is $17 million.
The Steelers could keep all three of them, at least for a year. Or they could sit back and wait to see if another team makes them an offer, for either Watt or Highsmith.
Trading Watt would avoid $32 million in guaranteed pay for 2026, while triggering a $10 million cap charge in 2026 and a $20 million cap charge in 2027. Trading Highsmith would avoid his $14.5 million salary for 2026, with a cap charge of $5.6 million in 2026 and a $5.6 million cap charge in 2027.
Chances are the phone has already been ringing. That’s how it goes. Teams always explore whether other players are available, and what it could take to get them.
Given the value of pass rushers — and given that plenty of teams are looking for more of them (the Bears could use one, badly) — the Herbig deal becomes a de facto invitation for other teams to make an offer, for either Watt or Highsmith.
Bears Clips
Bears coach Ben Johnson says June is no time to evaluate his offensive and defensive lines.
Asked how his linemen are playing in non-contact spring practices, Johnson said there’s no way to evaluate that. In training camp, when the players are in pads and hitting each other, he’ll know how his lines look.
“We’ll know everything when the pads come on,” Johnson said. “Right now, to evaluate offensive line and defensive line play is fool’s gold. You always fall in love with some guys in the spring time and that always changes.
Johnson did say that when he’s in the line meetings, he’s impressed with how well the players are picking up what the coaches are teaching.
“I’m really pleased with the teaching progression, I’ve been able to sit in on some meetings, I love how the coaches are going about their business, I like how the players are responding to it right now, we’re all on the same page, we’re speaking the same language, and that’s always a good starting point,” Johnson said.
But it’s only a start. Until the pads are on, the linemen aren’t showing what they can do.
Rome Odunze missed five games last season with a left foot injury and was hampered by it in others. So, the Bears wide receiver’s answer to a question about whether his foot felt normal again had to set off alarms in Chicago.
“It’s not from a standpoint that I’m like always in pain, but the way my foot broke, there’s calluses in there that creates a different type of foot structure with those bones — different things that kind of shifts things around,” Odunze said Wednesday, via Jay Cohen of the Associated Press. “So my new normal was kind of what I am going into. And I don’t think that’s anything that’s going to prohibit me or keep me from making plays.”
The Bears traded veteran wide receiver DJ Moore to Buffalo this offseason, creating a bigger need for Odunze to remain healthy and productive. Odunze made 54 catches for 734 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie before 44 receptions for 661 yards and six touchdowns last season.
“For me, I just want to be the best receiver possible for this team,” Odunze said. “I feel like I provide many assets to do that, and I’m comfortable with a lot of the target share, as well as the other guys getting involved so we can be the best offense possible.”
Most of Odunze’s production came in the first four games of last season, before his foot injury, when he had 20 receptions for 296 yards and five touchdowns in the first four games.
“It was tough,” Odunze said of his injury. “Obviously, I was gearing up for a great season. I felt like I was on track to have that, and injuries are part of the game. Unfortunately, I feel like it affected me more than injuries have in the past.”
Injuries kept cornerback Kyler Gordon off the field for most of the 2025 season and it’s been more of the same during the Bears’ offseason program.
Gordon missed 14 regular season games due to groin, hamstring and calf injuries last year and another soft-tissue injury has kept him off the field this spring. On Wednesday, head coach Ben Johnson said the hope was that the offseason work would “be a springboard for us to get going in the right direction” but that progress can’t be made as long as Gordon is off the field.
“We’re still trying to get that availability piece going,” Johnson said at a press conference. “We know he’s a good player when he’s out there, but trust level is a huge thing for this team, for this coaching staff, for the locker room. You can only develop that trust by being available.”
Gordon is in the first year of the three-year contract extension he signed ahead of last season. If they can’t solve “that availability piece” in the near future, it won’t go down as a winner for the Bears.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is the cover model for Madden NFL 27.
EA Sports made it official today, releasing the Madden cover image, which depicts Williams throwing a jump pass, set against the Chicago skyline.
Williams’ jump-pass pose is similar to the fourth-down touchdown throw he made to Rome Odunze in the Bears’ wild card playoff win over the Packers. It’s the second year in a row that EA Sports has gone with a pose from a highlight of the previous season; last year it was Eagles running back Saquon Barkley’s spectacular backwards hurdle of a defender.
The Deluxe Edition cover shows Williams in his white road jersey with snowflakes falling around him, perhaps a nod to the “Iceman” nickname Williams would like to trademark.
The Bears supposedly have narrowed their focus for the site of a new stadium to Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana. Chicago continues to believe it’s in play for the new domed stadium the team covets.
“There’s no plan in Hammond,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s none of that in the suburbs. We are already further along than any other site that might even be considered.”
Johnson also made a somewhat stunning claim that Chicago and the Bears are quietly moving toward an agreement.
“Not only did we have a publicly owned stadium that expanded green space, we were moving forward with conversations around the terms of an agreement,” Johnson said. “That’s been ongoing, and the hope is that Springfield, after what they’ve done in this last session, that Springfield engages with the Bears, with the city and all stakeholders collectively, to come up with a . . . plan that shows the viability of what we’ve already put forward.”
Johnson is a firm believer in the viability of Chicago as the location for the team’s new stadium.
"[T]here’s no comparison,” Johnson said. “There’s no traffic study in Arlington Heights. There’s no environmental study in Hammond. There are no terms of agreement.”
Although a dome would remove the elements from the equation for Bears games, it seems to be a given that the new stadium will have a roof. Regardless, the Bears belong in Chicago. Here’s hoping that’s how this saga ends.
The Bengals and Bears will hold a joint practice ahead of their Aug. 22 preseason game at Paycor Stadium.
The teams will work together on Thursday, Aug. 20, marking the second time in three seasons the Bengals and Bears have practiced against each other.
Bears coach Ben Johnson and Bengals coach Zac Taylor have a close friendship dating to the 2012 season when they worked together on the Dolphins staff.
“It’s very easy,” Taylor said when asked if his friendship with Johnson affects the scheduling, via Jay Morrison of SI.com. “He’s been great. So he and I will iron that out over the next couple of days, but they’ll come here.”
The teams last practiced together in 2024, when rain marred the day. Two Bengals players were lost for the season with knee injuries, as running back Chris Evans and offensive tackle D’Ante Smith tore a patellar tendon.
The Bears are where we thought they were — still deciding between Indiana and Illinois as the location of a new stadium.
Now that the Illinois legislature has blown the window on passing a bill that would help finance a new facility in Arlington Heights, the only viable option (based on what the Bears have previously said) is Hammond, Indiana.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott believes the Bears will make a decision by the end of June. He also believes the Bears will pick a move across the border.
“Indiana did what they were asked to do. Illinois couldn’t do what they were asked to do. So I’m confident the Bears are going to choose Hammond,” McDermott said, via Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times.
Why is McDermott so confident?
“I think we have a great offer on the table,” McDermott said. “We’re going to offer a superior fan experience. It’s going to be an awesome stadium in an awesome location. But the Bears have to huddle and make the determination now whether or not they’re going to make the move to Indiana. In 30 days, we should have an answer.”
If an answer is coming in 30 days, Hammond is the clear favorite — unless the Bears have decided to build a stadium in Arlington Heights without any direct or indirect tax benefits or incentives.
If it lingers, Illinois remains in play. And Chicago could still be in play. An item from the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune calls the current situation a “big, fat L for the Bears, which overplayed its hand and mismanaged the entire process, squandering all kinds of good will in the process.”
It remains to be seen whether there’s a method to the apparent madness from the Monsters of the Midway. Or whether it’s just plain madness.
Until then, Soldier Field will continue to be the team’s home. For those who love tradition and football in the elements, the longer it takes to change that, the better.
The Illinois legislature failed to pass a measure that would keep the Bears in the state. The door is now open for the Bears to exit for Indiana.
“The reality is that I wasn’t willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money in order to give it to a billionaire-owned family, or team, and believe very much that the incentives that we provide for businesses are to be similar to the incentives we provide to this type of business,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said Monday, via Mitchell Armentrout of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“As much of an emotional connection as many of us have to the Bears, and to keeping them in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, [the] No. 1 principle is we’re not going to foist this on the taxpayers of the state of Illinois.”
If the Bears leave for Indiana, that will be foisted onto Pritzker’s permanent record.
There’s a chance that Indiana was and is a bluff. The fact that the Bears said they’re evaluating options in Arlington Heights and Indiana when there is no current option in Arlington Heights suggests that Indiana is all about leverage.
If it is, it isn’t working.
With the Illinois legislature ending its spring session without passing a bill that would lay the foundation for the Bears to build a new stadium at their in-state preference of Arlington Heights, Chicago sees an opening. And Chicago is trying to seize it.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has issued a statement that makes the case for the Bears to stay in Chicago.
“Chicago continues to offer the strongest opportunity to retain the Bears,” Johnson said. “We have a publicly owned site the team has already vetted and approved, an existing sports authority with a dedicated revenue stream, and a framework for moving a deal forward. . . . I look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders to pursue a deal that keeps the [Bears] while protecting property taxpayers.”
The Bears repeatedly have said that their options are Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana. Unless and until an option materializes in Arlington Heights, and with the Indiana location seemingly nothing more than leverage to get a stadium in Illinois, maybe there’s a path for the Bears to stay in Chicago.
Where they belong.
