The Chicago Bears have given linebacker Tremaine Edmunds permission to seek a trade,according to multiplereports.
Edmunds became a two-time Pro Bowler with the Buffalo Bills, who drafted him 16th overall out of Virginia Tech in 2018. He's spent the past three seasons with the Bears.
Even though Edmunds missed four games during the 2025 campaign with a groin injury that he sustained late in a Week 11 win over the Minnesota Vikings, he still finished the regular season with a team-leading 112 total tackles. He's gone over the century mark in that department in each of his eight NFL seasons.
The Bears have Edmunds under contract for the 2026 season at $15 million,according to the Chicago Tribune's Brad Biggs. He will turn 28 in May.
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Chicago brought him aboard in 2023. It made a splash in free agency,signing not only Edmunds but also fellow linebacker T.J. Edwards.
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At the time, the Bears inked Edmunds to a four-year deal reportedly worth $72 million, with $50 million of that money guaranteed.
Since, Edmunds has remained productive. He's not just a tackle vacuum, either. Over the years, he's proven he has a knack for intercepting passes. He picked off four of them this past season. Edmunds did that in 2023, too, his first year with the Bears, even recording a 45-yard pick 6 in Week 15 of that season.
That's not to say he doesn't have his lapses in coverage, but he does have a track record of making game-changing plays.
He was especially good against the run this past season. No Bears player piled up more run stops than Edmunds (25), per Pro Football Focus, which defines those as "tackles that constitute a 'failure' for the offense."
Yet, as Bears head coach Ben Johnson has emphasized, every season is a new season.
Given the reports that surfaced Wednesday, Chicago could very well enter the 2026 campaign without one of its standouts from a breakout 2025.
