What we learned about the Chicago Bears at the NFL trade deadline
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LAKE FOREST, Ill. - The Chicago Bears were buyers at the trade deadline, but in a reserved way.
General manager Ryan Poles acquired Joe Tryon-Shoyinka from the Cleveland Browns in a trade that involved a swap of late-day-three draft picks to help fill the void after Dayo Odeyingbo's season-ending injury.
Poles spoke about this move on Wednesday in an informal media session at Halas Hall.
"Excited about the player, real athletic," Poles said. "If you guys remember a couple years ago when we played them, he had a really good game. I think he had like six pressures and two sacks. Someone that really liked coming out as well. But I think he can help us, obviously. Unfortunately, we lost Dayo, so he'll step in and get going."
Here’s what we learned from the Bears after the trade deadline.
The Bears got what they needed
Poles was asked if he made some calls about some of the premier pass rushers in the league.
Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson and Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby have been involved in trade discussions for months. Those players would cost a pretty penny, and the Bears just wanted to add players to deepen their pass rush.
With Austin Booker returning last week, and with Dominique Robinson most likely returning with a short-term injury suffered vs. the Ravens, the Bears wanted to add to what they already had.
Poles and the front office still did their due diligence. But, they wanted depth and acquired it with a player they were familiar with and didn’t cost much to acquire.
"We turned pretty much every stone to find those answers," Poles said. "The timing worked out where we got the extra week to see Book get going again and I think it reminded us back to the momentum he had going in the preseason. You saw those flashes and we expect those to continue to come."
Bears general manager Ryan Poles before the game against the Rams on Sept. 29, 2024, at Soldier Field. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The Bears didn’t want to buy too high
Some reports noted the Bears were interested in Jets’ pass rusher Jermaine Johnson.
The Jets, who were in some sort of fire sale mode, were aiming to acquire as much draft capital as they could. Conversations around Johnson, a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, got as high as a second-round pick for the asking price.
Any team that would have paid for Johnson would be paying for his production in 2023, when he had 7.5 sacks. He played in just two games in 2024 and has had just one sack so far in 2025.
That asking price was too rich for the Bears. Part of the discussion of who to acquire involved keeping the Bears’ draft capital in place, especially in at the top of the draft.
"That was part of our conversation," Poles said. "We talked about how we want to build this team, and that's through the draft."
Sending a day-two draft pick for a player that would have been a depth piece is too expensive, and the Bears realized it. Poles isn’t a stranger with big swings, either.
He sent second-round picks for Chase Claypool and Montez Sweat in consecutive seasons. Acquiring Sweat has paid off; he’s the Bears’ top pass rusher. Acquiring Claypool did not pay off; he lasted one season with the Bears before the team parted ways with him during the 2023 season.
It was the correct move, too.
Wagering top-shelf draft capital worked for teams that wanted to buy wins now.
The Bears, who have won games this year, have multiple spots on their roster that they could improve this offseason. Doing it through the draft is how Detroit built a contender. The Bears want to follow a similar path.
They didn’t lose draft capital, either. When they sent a sixth-round pick to Cleveland, they got a seventh-round pick in return.
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There’s an established selling point for certain players
Tuesday featured a handful of trades. Some of them shocked Poles when he saw them come through.
"There's some stunned moments there, but nothing surprises me," he said. "Teams do what they need to do and what they think they need to do in certain windows, and they're willing to give up a lot for it."
These trades set a precedent, too.
Not that the Bears would ever trade Jaylon Johnson, especially seeing how much they miss him as he rehabs a lower-body injury.
However, the NFL established a baseline for a trade if the Bears were ever in discussions to sell or buy a player in their prime.
Jets star cornerback Sauce Gardner, who was a first-team All-Pro in 2023 when Johnson was a second-team All-Pro that same year, was traded from the Jets to the Colts in one of the two blockbuster-type trades involving the Jets on Tuesday. The other involved sending defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys for draft picks and defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
The Colts traded two first-round picks and a player for Gardner. That player was wide receiver and former second-round pick AD Mitchell, who never worked his way up the depth chart and sat behind Alec Pierce, Michael Pittman and Josh Downs.
So, any trade for Johnson would look similar: a first-round pick, one other piece of draft capital and a player.
This is also a hypothetical.
The Bears are, in no way, looking to trade Johnson. But, the trade for Gardner established what it would look like when a skill player in their prime is involved.