2025 Team Previews: Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears 2025 Team Preview
All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Relevant Players
**DJ Moore, WR (ADP: 49, WR21): Moore finally broke out in 2023, posting career-best yardage (1,364) and touchdown (9) numbers with Justin Fields at QB. When Chicago drafted Caleb Williams first overall, the excitement was through the roof, seeing Moore finally get to play with an elite passer. Except, Williams was in need of much more development than anyone expected, and Moore’s poor attitude toward the Bears’ decision to move on from Fields seeped in. Moore ended the season with just 966 yards and six touchdowns on 98 receptions; that’s not completely awful, but it certainly didn’t meet his ADP.
It's a new year. Williams has a year of experience, the Bears have Ben Johnson installing his offense from Detroit that made them a juggernaut, and the hierarchy of pass catchers makes more sense than it did a year ago. Moore remains the alpha for this passing game, and his down year in 2024 should be looked at as the outlier when compared to his entire resume. It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen Moore dip below 1,000 yards, but we’ve also seen him clear 1,100 yards four times. Moore is a tremendous player, and while he probably isn’t on the level with the true elites, at his best he’s close. And if he gets back to that, he’s a value at this ADP for sure.
**D’Andre Swift, RB (ADP: 56, RB23): Nerds don’t like Swift’s game. That’s fine, because I am a fantasy manager, and I don’t get points for elusive jukes or spotting the right cutback lane. One upon a time I felt Swift was an elite RB who just needed opportunity. What I now understand is that Swift is a productive RB who has flaws, but overall delivers for managers. Swift only has one 1,000-yard rushing season to his name. He has back-to-back 1,200+-yards from scrimmage seasons. Swift has never scored fewer than six touchdowns in a season, he’s a strong bet for around 40 receptions, and he’s basically all alone in the Bears’ backfield at the time of this writing. There will be down games, but Swift is rare in that he has no committee threat, and with the offense likely to improve a lot, there’s potential for a TD spike. I don’t know that his upside is much higher than RB15 or so, but even still that’s a value at this ADP. Swift is safe.
**Rome Odunze, WR (ADP: 85, WR37: Odunze’s potential to hit the elite tier was discussed here, and my thoughts have not changed. He was my favorite prospect of the vaunted 2024 rookie WR class, and while his stats lagged behind Malik Nabers, Ladd McConkey and Brian Thomas Jr., a lot of that had to do with poor QB play, worse offensive scheme, and too many veterans to appease. Odunze was moved all around the formation, and while that’s generally good, his weakest point was defeating zone coverage which is critical when operating out of the slot. He wasn’t a disaster vs. zone (78.9%, 52nd percentile), but he really was excellent vs. man (72.2%, 71st percentile) and press (78.9%, 87th percentile), making him a perfect fit as Caleb Williams’ outside X. Odunze could also benefit from a little bit more variation when working down the field; 17.8% of his routes were nines, and it was his most frequently run route overall. It was also one of his lowest success rates, whereas he was fantastic on corners and posts but ran both of those at a sub-10% rate.
His rookie season was by no means a failure, but it felt that way given the Bears hype. Now that managers were burned, the hype really has died down a lot and it’s creating a massive opportunity with Odunze who will be playing a more natural role without Keenan Allen demanding a huge target share. It’s easy to forget what a magnificent prospect Odunze really is when so many rookies popped, but second-year breakouts are definitely a thing. This is one of my biggest values in our game.
Caleb Williams, QB (ADP: 86, QB11): I guess I’m a big believer again in the Bears, because Williams is another player that I have high hopes for in 2025. I wrote at length here about why I think Williams should be much better in Year 2, but it boils down to a better scheme, a more coherent pass catching corps, and the Bears leaning further into Williams’ ability to hurt teams with his legs.
Williams rushed for almost 500 yards last season, and he had a history of nice numbers on the ground in college as well, establishing a high floor and giving him some breathing room for off games through the air. We saw the spike games from Williams, who threw for 250+ yards five times and racked up more than half his passing touchdowns in those games. When it was good, it was great, and the new coaching staff should be able to bring that out of him more. We also didn’t see Williams fully unleash his own potential, because he was very concerned with limiting turnovers. He did only throw six interceptions, but it came at the expense of big plays and explosive offense. This new scheme needs to incentivize Williams to take chances and lean into his prodigious gifts. Now, while I do think he can justify this ADP, I did expect him to be further down the ADP list. At this point in drafts, it’s more of a reasonable risk than a great value. With names like Dak Prescott, Justin Fields and Justin Herbert going later than him I still would lean toward other positions at this juncture of the draft.
Interesting Sleeper(s)
Colston Loveland, TE (ADP: 124, TE13): Loveland’s production was somewhat middling at Michigan, but you kind of have to throw that out in his case. The Wolverines were all about running the football, and despite that his numbers are still pretty solid for a college TE. He’s a purer pass-catcher than Tyler Warren, the other rookie TE in this class whom many expected to be drafted ahead of Loveland. Warren is a wrecking ball, whereas Loveland is more of a route runner and smoother playmaker. Think Brock Bowers vs. Rob Gronkowski. Loveland’s talent is undeniable, and he’ll very likely be a serviceable fantasy TE. Whether or not he’s a slam dunk will probably depend on TDs, because with Odunze and Moore out there Loveland’s not going to see overwhelming volume. In this range, I love the gamble because a Top 5 TE finish is conceivable, which can’t be said about anyone else around this ADP at TE. Well, besides Warren.
Notable Players
Luther Burden, WR (ADP: 166, WR55): Burden is an interesting player to mix into this offense, because he fits in perfectly as a slot option which allows Odunze to move to X, and Moore to dominate on the outside as well. On the flip side, his production was way down as a junior from his breakout sophomore campaign, and he’s coming into this rookie season as a clear third banana for a QB who threw for 3,500 yards as a rookie. Burden’s greatest strength is making defenders look stupid after the catch, and almost 20% of his touches were on screens or layups to the flat. The Bears can certainly make that a priority for him, but that kind of player needs a lot of volume or extreme efficiency to succeed and I don’t forecast that for Burden in Year 1.
Another issue is that Burden doesn’t translate well to the outside, or at least he needs significant development in order to do that. So in the event of injury to Moore or Odunze, Burden could be a bigger part of the offense, but not in the same way a true blue chipper would be. Burden’s an interesting player, and could be impactful, but I’m not overly pumped about him this year even with a late ADP.
Cole Kmet, TE (ADP: 287, TE35): I’ve always felt Kmet was underrated and needed more opportunity, and he does have two seasons on his resume with seven and six touchdowns, respectively. But it’s over. Kmet will still be a solid real-life red zone weapon who improves Caleb Williams’ life, but he’s no fantasy option anymore. Colston Loveland has killed it, and the question is now whether Kmet will detract from Loveland’s value, or just be a blocker.
Olamide Zaccheus, WR (ADP: N/A): Zaccheus is an NFL wide receiver. He’s never popped, never really shown flashes of being an important fantasy option, but Luther Burden’s been burdened with injuries this spring and summer and may just be behind the 8-ball come Week 1. In that world, Zaccheus is the Bears starting slot receiver, and might have some value in very, very deep PPR formats.
Handcuffs
Roschon Johnson, RB (ADP: 194, RB59): Johnson has TD upside if Swift gets hurt, but that appears to be all he can really do. His yards per carry last year was 2.7, a comical number even when acknowledging his primary role was plowing into stacked boxes on the goal line. The main question is should people who draft Swift get Johnson as insurance? My advice would be no, spend the pick on some other player with upside.