Grading the Chicago Bears' rookies at midway point of 2026 - Bears Wire

The Chicago Bears sit at the midway point of the 2026 season (and their bye week) with a strong 7-2 record. Their bye lands in the ideal spot in the calendar where we can begin to take stock of various player performances.

After last year's impactful rookie draft class, led by tight end Colston Loveland and wide receiver Luther Burden III, the hope was this 2026 class, headlined by first-round safety Dillon Thieneman, would have a similar impact. But while there have been a couple of standouts on defense, there's still plenty to be desired through the first half of this class's rookie season.

In most cases, the samples are large enough to begin making firm declarations about performance. As such, let's take a look at how the team's 2026 rookie class is faring roughly halfway through their first season.

There wasn't really a world in which Dillon Thieneman wasn't going to be a Day 1 starter, and he's largely rewarded the Bears from the jump. He leads the team in snaps, is second in stops, and has six quarterback pressures on the sheet. Opposing quarterbacks have a rating of just 76.3 when he's in coverage, and his interception back in Week 3 against the Philadelphia Eagles was a crucial turning point. It hasn't all been perfect, but the adjustment to the top level has been about as smooth as one could hope for. Especially with his expected running mate in Coby Bryant still out with an injury.

Garrett Bradbury is, by a large margin, the Bears' worst graded offensive lineman in 2026 (60.8 on PFF). That hasn't allowed their "center of the future" to make any headway toward regular work, however. Logan Jones has just seven snaps to his name this season, and there doesn't appear to be a pathway toward an increase in time on the horizon. It's not even that there's too small a sample by which to measure him; there's almost no sample at all of which to speak.

If this grade were on the board a few weeks ago, we'd likely be looking at something pretty tough to stomach. But after just three receptions across his first eight games, Sam Roush added a pair against the Buccaneers and hasn't been a visible liability in the blocking (or penalty) side that he was over the early portion of the season. He's also offered a positive EPA per target in every game in which he's had one since the Minnesota debacle. The injury to Cole Kmet is going to offer Roush every opportunity to leave an impact, which leaves him a chance to drive this grade up a bit before season's end.

Beyond a kick return touchdown that was wiped out on a questionable holding call against Tampa Bay, it's been difficult for Zavion Thomas to leave an impact in his first year with the Bears. He has just seven receptions to his name (10 targets) for 54 yards. He also has three penalties, one of which was an unnecessary roughness in that same game against the Buccaneers and represented a turning point in the opposition's favor. There have been some flashes in the return game that offer some encouraging signs of his speed being a gamebreaker at some point, but the penalties and lack of impact on the stat sheet have his Bears career off to a disappointing start.

It became clear pretty early on that Malik Muhammad was going to be asked to do more than one might expect a fourth rounder to handle. While Muhammad hasn't played in a couple of weeks due to a toe injury, his early work left plenty of room for optimism. Across seven games, he has five passes defended, an interception, and a sack. He's the Bears' highest-rated corner both in coverage and overall. His presence has been absolutely crucial considering some of the injuries and struggles that the secondary has endured. Given the context of his draft position, it's hard to argue against the idea of him being the biggest standout from this class.

We have yet to see Keyshaun Elliott log a snap on defense, as he's featured purely as a special teamer to date. That he hasn't been noticeable in that regard seems like a positive, but we have no sample with which to work to offer a legitimate grade.

Count Jordan van den Berg among those on a long list of training camp standouts that haven't seen that preseason success carry over into the regular season. He has only 66 snaps and hasn't left a mark on the stat sheet since Week 4 against the New York Jets, when he added a QB hit to the mix. It's otherwise been the odd appearance without a single pressure. At the end of the day, he's a rookie that was a sixth-round pick on a defensive line that has since added Jeffery Simmons. Still, the absence of any pressure given the preseason buzz reads as disappointing.

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