The Super Bowl-bound player who can save Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears’ offense

Is Kansas City's All-Pro guard Trey Smith running towards Chicago?
Is Kansas City's All-Pro guard Trey Smith running towards Chicago? / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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As we inch towards NFL free agency, one of the buzzwords buzzing around Halas Hall is trenches. Which makes sense.

What with the 2024 Chicago Bears’ historic inability to protect their quarterback—poor Caleb Williams was sacked 68 times—they need linemen on the offensive side of the ball. Badly.

What with the 2024 Chicago Bears’ frustrating inability to take down opposing quarterbacks—they only managed 40 sacks, 17th in the league—they need linemen on the defensive side of the ball. Badly.

The good news is that Chicago has plenty of trench mavens available to them both via the Draft and free agency. The best option for their offense is arguably a nimble 6’6”, 321-pounder who, as this is being written, is prepping to win himself a third Super Bowl ring.

Trey Day

Exiting his age-25 season and entering his age-26 campaign, Kansas City Chiefs guard Trey Smith is, putting it succinctly, a beast. PFF graded him out at 78.8, ranking him 14th among guards, and his 75.1% block win rate is the sixth-best in the league.

Little wonder the All-Pro is one of the most prized NFL free agents—if not the most prized free agent—of the summer of 2025.

A Rare Gem

O-linemen with Smith’s combination of age and talent rarely hit the free agent market, and the Chiefs—whose are well aware that protecting Patrick Mahomes is job #1—will do everything within their power to re-sign the former Tennessee Volunteer. Thing is, they have a measly $11.5 million of cap space.

The Chicago Bears’ free agent budget, on the other hand, lands at $66 million. So for K.C., a bidding war wouldn’t end well.

What Would Caleb Want?

It’s still not clear how new coach Ben Johnson is going to approach the off-season. Will he want to throw free agent bucks at a skill player like Tee Higgins? Will he want to draft a scoring machine like Ashton Jeanty? Or will he listen to the buzzword at Halas and focus on the trenches?

For the 2025 Bears, job #1 is to set Williams up for success. A Higgins or a Jeanty would be fun, but 68 sacks, not so much.

So if Johnson and GM Ryan Poles want to keep their second-year quarterback healthy, wealthy, and wise, they’ll break the bank for Mr. Smith.


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Alan Goldsher
ALAN GOLDSHER

Alan Goldsher has written about sports for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Apple, Playboy, NFL.com, and NBA.com, and he’s the creator of the Chicago Sports Stuff Substack. He’s the bestselling author of 15 books, and the founder/CEO of Gold Note Records. Alan lives in Chicago, where he writes, makes music, and consumes and creates way too much Bears content. You can visit him at http://www.AlanGoldsher.com and http://x.com/AlanGoldsher.