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The Chicago Bears "won't miss" this player that they parted ways with in free agency, according to an NFL expert.
NFL free agency is happening now for the 2026-27 season, and while players and teams have to wait until Wednesday, March 11, plenty of contracts are being written up now. On Monday, March 9, the Chicago Bears made a handful of moves, and one is drawing praise.
The 2026-27 season is a crucial one for the Bears, and second-year head coach Ben Johnson is heading into the season hungry to get this team to the championship. After the Chicago Bears losing to the Rams on January 18 in a 20-17 final score, Johnson sounded positive about the future.
“We’re one of the 31 other teams that fell short,” he said, according to the Chicago Bears’ official website. “If anything, that just rejuvenates me and makes me want to push harder and longer than what we did this past season.”
He also said, “In regards to last season, I really appreciate our guys. They came in in the springtime and they dedicated a large amount of trust to what we were doing. Buy in, work ethic, they sacrificed a lot.”
Johnson added that all of that sacrifice is “what gave us a chance there at the end. We won games, put ourselves in a good position, but ultimately we came up short and so our guys are going to learn from this.”
Chicago Bears Made a Good Choice to Let Free Agent Walk, NFL Expert Says
One move the Bears made on Monday was letting edge Dominique Robinson walk in free agency. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Robinson has agreed to a one-year deal of up to $4 million with the Houston Texans.
The Chicago Bears drafted Robinson in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft out of the Miami of Ohio. In his NFL career so far, in 46 games, Robinson notched 3.5 sacks and 68 total tackles, according to NFL research.
In a Monday, March 9 feature for Bear Goggles On, Brad Berreman says that the Bears “won’t miss” this edge. Berreman notes that the player was a “healthy scratch for the 2024 season finale” and seemed ready to find a new team after that season. But, he was given another chance by the fresh coaching staff in Chicago for the 2025-26 season, “and a sack in the first preseason game helped win him a spot on the 53-man roster.”
Former Chicago Bears Player Had a Key Play Against the Los Angeles Rams on January 18
Even with Dayo Odeyingbo not being able to play after his season-ending Achilles’ tear in Week 9, Robinson didn’t get much play time. His claim to fame, so to say, was in the team’s January 18 game against the Los Angeles Rams, where the defensive end blew through the Los Angeles Rams offensive line to sack quarterback Matthew Stafford for a seven-yard loss. The play was so celebrated at the time that the Chicago Bears highlighted it on their official website.
“Robinson’s tenure with the Bears will be remembered entirely for unrealized potential, especially after that aforementioned first game in Week 1 of the 2022 season,” Berreman notes in the piece.
So, while every move any team makes in NFL free agency comes with criticism, this one is already getting rave reviews. But, that’s not to say Robinson isn’t talented. Any player in the NFL has talent, but perhaps he needs a different coaching style and will find it elsewhere.