Ben Johnson, the Chicago Bears.
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One player who was a hopeful for the Chicago Bears would feel "dirty" playing for the franchise, a report states.
The Chicago Bears still have open roster spots for their 2026-27 lineup, and those holes are being filled with talented, up-and-coming players from the 2026 NFL draft, as well as through available free agents and trade deals. But, one player the NFL world had been thinking may come to Chicago just shot the idea down.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson, of course, hails from the Detroit Lions. While he’s brought players to the Bears from across the NFL spectrum, he does give special attention to available former Lions players, because he’s familiar with them. He’s often worked closely with those players and can hit the ground running when he brings one of them onto his roster.
But, one former Detroit Lions player is expressing that he wants nothing to do with joining the Chicago Bears. It’s nothing personal, but this player lived with the Lions and Bears rivalry for 10 years, from 2016 to 2025, so he can’t get behind the idea of suddenly turning heel.
Former Detroit Lions Doesn’t Like the Notion of Become a Member of Ben Johnson’s Chicago Bears
The Detroit Lions parted ways with left tackle Taylor Decker during the 2026 NFL free agency period, granting the player his request for release in March. Decker is still without a team for the 2026-27 season, but he doesn’t like the notion of going to Chicago or the Green Bay Packers, according to a report from Justin Rogers of the Detroit Football Network.
Rogers was on the Thursday, April 2 episode of the Lions Collective podcast, and talked about his private interview with Decker, where the tackle discussed the communication problems he had with the franchise. Speaking on the show, he talked about the teams Decker would like to avoid, and one of them was the Bears.
“He wants to play for a winner (but) he’s kind of thinking about, ‘Is it cheap to win somewhere else after you’ve invested all your energy emotionally and physically into one franchise?'” Rogers said, adding as a dig, “I will tell you that he’s pretty anti-playing for the Bears and Packers. That’s the Lions background.”
Rogers also said that he knows “Ben Johnson did it, and that was the right situation for him, but Taylor feels kind of dirty about the idea. It just isn’t interesting to him.”
Chicago Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson Reached Out to Former Detroit Lions Player Amid Release
Rogers went on to say that Decker really just wanted to stay with the Detroit Lions for the upcoming season, but that didn’t happen. “His sole goal—and I’m not even thinking about this, he said this—his sole vision was coming back to play for the Lions,” Roger stated. “That was his vision. So, requesting his release, he didn’t really think forward about what was next.”
When Decker was released from the Lions, Johnson reached out to him to check on him, according to Rogers, which is what made NFL analysts talk about him coming to Chicago. But, after this report, if Decker does make the move, he’ll have to work extra hard to prove that he’s loyal to the Chicago Bears.