The Chicago Bears needed a win at Halas Hall this week, and on Wednesday they finally got one. Linebacker T.J. Edwards was activated from the Active/Non-Football Injury list, the team announced on X —
T.J. Edwards has been activated off the Active/Non-Football Injury list
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 5, 2026
Edwards had been sidelined by a calf strain he picked up while training on his own over the summer, separate from the broken fibula that ended his 2025 season. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, he missed the first six practices of camp before getting the green light. General manager Ryan Poles had downplayed the injury a week earlier, calling it nothing major.
The timing matters. Chicago’s defense has taken hit after hit through the first two weeks of camp. Cornerback Kyler Gordon opened camp on the PUP list with a calf issue of his own, and ESPN reported Poles has no timeline for his return. Then came a bigger blow: safety Coby Bryant, Chicago’s biggest defensive free-agent addition this offseason, hyperextended his left knee during one-on-one drills and will miss eight to 10 weeks, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter — a timeline that could sideline him into the regular season.
Against that backdrop, Edwards jogging onto the practice field counts as real news. Cameras caught him going through individual drills in a limited role, working alongside linebacker Jack Sanborn, who had been filling in next to newcomer Devin Bush while Edwards was out. The Bears aren’t rushing him. Even with the injury behind him, coaches plan to build his workload up gradually rather than throw him back into full-contact reps.
That caution tracks with what Edwards has already been through. A broken hand and hamstring trouble limited him to 10 games in 2025, and he still finished with 67 tackles, five pass breakups and an interception in that span before fracturing his fibula in Chicago’s Wild Card win over Green Bay. He’s started 44 games over four seasons in Chicago, piling up 351 tackles, seven sacks, five interceptions and two forced fumbles along the way — production that made him the team’s leading tackler in 2023 and its second-leading tackler in 2024.
Pro Football Focus graded Edwards at 72.0 overall last season, 24th among 88 qualifying linebackers, even in a shortened, injury-interrupted year. That’s the level Chicago is hoping he returns to now that he’s healthy again.
Why Edwards’ Health Matters So Much for This Defense
The Bears finished with the sixth-worst run defense in the NFL last season, and fixing that starts in the middle of the field. Chicago moved on from Tremaine Edmunds this offseason and brought in Devin Bush to pair with Edwards, betting that a healthier, more experienced linebacker duo can clean up the gaps that got exposed in 2025. None of that works if Edwards is watching from the sideline.
He’s also become the room’s veteran voice by default. With Edmunds gone and Bush still getting acclimated, Edwards is the guy who’s played the most snaps in Chicago’s scheme and the one defensive coordinator Dennis Allen leans on to communicate calls before the snap. Losing him for extended stretches doesn’t just cost the Bears a tackler — it costs them a translator between the coaching staff and the rest of the front seven.
That’s part of why the calf injury got handled so carefully in the first place. A soft-tissue strain that lingers can turn into a hamstring problem, and Chicago has already watched that exact chain of events play out with Gordon, who’s dealt with recurring lower-body issues for two straight training camps now.
| Player | Position | Injury | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| T.J. Edwards | LB | Calf strain | Activated off NFI list, Aug. 5 |
| Kyler Gordon | CB | Calf strain | PUP list, no return timeline |
| Coby Bryant | S | Knee (hyperextension, bone bruise, small fracture) | Out 8-10 weeks |
Edwards told reporters this spring he hoped to be “ready when it’s time to go” — a line that at the time referred generally to the season ahead. Wednesday’s activation is the first concrete step toward that, even if the Bears plan to take the next few weeks slowly.
For now, the plan is simple: ease him back in, monitor the calf, and hope the third significant injury of his Bears tenure turns out to be the last one standing between him and a full 17-game season.
