Friday, August 15 marked the final day of Bears training camp practices that were made open to the public. Joint practices with the Dolphins and Bills and the installation of a brand new coaching staff’s playbook marked the biggest storylines from this year’s camp.
There’s still plenty of preseason action left to play, and the Bears will continue practices behind closed doors. However, with the end of public training camp practices, now is a good time to look back on the biggest winners from this year’s camp.
Whether it be because of their performance in camp or the situation around them, there are plenty of Bears players with higher stock than what they previous had. Here are the five biggest winners from Chicago’s training camp in 2025.
WR Luther Burden III
Leading up to training camp, questions revolved around the availability of Luther Burden due to a hamstring injury he sustained in OTAs. He was a little late to the party compared to some of his other 2025 draft picks on Chicago’s roster, but once he got on the field, he made a big impact.
Burden’s athleticism has translated well to the Bears’ practice field. His deep speed and shiftiness was apparent to anybody who watched him in college at Missouri, and his ball skills have been on full display in camp, as well. His abilities after the catch haven’t even been fully demonstrated yet.
Perhaps the most underrated aspect of Burden’s game has been his attention to detail. In college, he was inconsistent in terms of his route effort when he wasn’t the primary read. His ability to disguise route concepts wasn’t as polished as it could be, as well. However, he has looked good as a route runner in camp and in his preseason debut, showcasing a strong understanding of exploiting leverage through his stems and varying his tempo to work himself open against zone coverage.
Olamide Zaccheaus has also performed well in training camp, and he figures to be Burden’s top competition for reps in the slot. That said, it’s been very encouraging to see the second-round rookie perform as well as he has since coming back from injury.
CB Nahshon Wright
Since the hiring of Dennis Allen as the Bears’ new defensive coordinator under Ben Johnson, the starting outside cornerback spot opposite Jaylon Johnson has become wide open. With the veteran corner missing time due to injury, it has provided the other cornerbacks on the roster ample playing time in training camp. The biggest benefactor of that has been Nahshon Wright.
Wright was a third-round pick by the Cowboys in 2021, having been traded to the Vikings in 2024 and staying on their practice squad last season. Because of his lack of playing time in the NFL, the Bears’ acquisition of him in April flew under the radar amidst more heralded additions like Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman, and Dayo Odeyingbo around that time.
The 6’4” Wright has looked right at home in Allen’s more aggressive style of pass defense, though. He has taken significant snaps with the first-team defense, sometimes seeing playing time over incumbent starter Tyrique Stevenson and third-year backup Terell Smith. The absence of fifth-round rookie Zah Frazier has provided plenty of chances for Wright to show out against the starting offense, too.
I recall Wright as having great ball skills to pair with his height and length coming out of Oregon State, and he’s displayed those tools in training camp. He seems like a safe bet to crack the 53-man roster after his signing was met with little buzz initially.
OL Theo Benedet
There’s plenty to be concerned about with the Bears’ starting left tackle competition, seeing as though none of the projected starting options have taken the world by storm. Braxton Jones has struggled coming back from injury, Ozzy Trapilo looks more comfortable as a right tackle, and Kiran Amegadjie hasn’t played much with the first-team offense.
One bright spot, though, has been the play of second-year lineman Theo Benedet. An undrafted free agent out of British Columbia in 2024, he was a fan favorite on Hard Knocks before getting hurt and spending his rookie year on the practice squad. He came into training camp under the radar, but he has since received plenty of attention for his level of play. A strong preseason debut against the Dolphins helped generate plenty of buzz, too.
In a surprise twist, Benedet has now been taking some snaps with the first-team offense as the Bears’ starting left tackle. Given that his arms are barely over 32 inches long, it’s a bit of a surprise to see him at tackle instead of guard. However, he’s been performing well on the outside, showcasing his athleticism in pass protection and raw play strength that’s overcome his lack of length.
At this point, it would still be a shock if Benedet won the Bears’ starting left tackle job outright. But at the very least, he comes out of training camp with much higher stock than he had coming in. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if he ended up making the 53-man roster.
WR Rome Odunze
A late addition to the party, Rome Odunze has been one of the biggest standouts in the last week or so of training camp. I say this as someone who hasn’t gone to the practices and has relied on beat reporters and fans taking videos in the stands, so my opinions are only second-hand at this stage. However, apparently anybody can pretend they were at training camp to get clicks and views these days.
Odunze particularly looked impressive in Chicago’s joint practice against the Bills, showing out well against Buffalo’s secondary to create separation. His explosiveness out of his breaks, especially for a 6’3” wide receiver, has seen him create separation and make plays that most receivers his size don’t have the athletic liberty to make.
Odunze heads into the 2025 season as the projected WR2 on the Bears’ offense behind DJ Moore. That said, the former has superior size and physicality in contested coverage, which could make him a preferred option for Caleb Williams in a pinch this year.
Admittedly, Odunze’s numbers as a rookie fell short of fellow draft picks like Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr. and Ladd McConkey last year. But he was still one of the most productive WR3s in the NFL in 2024. Now that he projects in a bigger role in the Bears’ offense, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his numbers catch up to those aforementioned wideouts in Year 2.
Fans of physical football
“Oh, Jacob went with a cop-out for his last answer, what a loser,” someone types in the comments. There’s nothing you can say about me that I haven’t shouted at myself in the mirror a thousand times. No amount of Internet disdain can match the hatred I have for myself.
Perhaps more than recent years, the Bears have been bringing the physicality to training camp. Both of their joint practices with the Dolphins and Bills saw an uptick in aggression from what the other teams were typically used to in practice settings. While that was received well by Buffalo, Miami wasn’t quite so receptive.
There have been some fights in camp, which is par for the course when you have a bunch of type-A competitors hitting each other all day. However, the increase in physicality is meant to toughen up the Bears’ roster and prepare them for in-game situations. While some coaching staffs take it lightly during camp to avoid injuries, Johnson and the rest of his staff seems to be making sure their players are ready for the hard-hitting action of a real game.
This quote from Tremaine Edmunds (per the Bears’ team website) speaks to the positives of Chicago’s physical practices:
“It’s really just going out there and doing it for real,” Edmunds said. “The beginning of communication from the sideline, being able to be in those game-like atmospheres … I think that’s what it comes down to. Obviously, it’s a live game, so being able to make the tackles, we need to tackle, and really just the overall communication from the sideline because it’s a different coaching style. So I think it gives everybody an opportunity to go through everything.”
It remains to be seen if this approach will translate into the regular season, but it’s certainly fun as a Bears fan to watch the team play with an edge in their practices.