We’ve reached the time of year in the NFL when speculation about free-agent targets takes center stage. For a team like the Chicago Bears, with plenty of cap space and numerous roster needs, it’s easy to link them to several veteran upgrades.

The 2025 NFL free agency period will be a little different, however. Armed with new head coach Ben Johnson, there’s logic in predicting the Bears will target some of his former players who can help install his way of doing things, both on and off the field, inside Halas Hall.

One of those soon-to-be free agents who was recently named as a fit for Johnson and the Bears is guard Kevin Zeitler, a key veteran of the Detroit Lions offensive line, who’d be a plug-and-play improvement over both Matt Pryor and Teven Jenkins, who are both scheduled to become free agents.

“The 34-year-old would be an upgrade over Matt Pryor, who is an impending free agent,” Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox wrote. “He’d also help Johnson install his plan for the O-line and the creative blocking schemes that helped make Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery one of the NFL’s best backfield duos.”

Look, I get it. The Bears are in no position to be picky regarding their offensive line. If there’s an improvement who can be had in free agency, sign him. But shouldn’t Poles have a long-term vision with the free agents he signs? If so, Zeitler isn’t it.

Zeitler was the Cincinnati Bengals’ first-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and became a top-of-the market starter during his five seasons with the team. He became the highest-paid guard in the NFL in 2017 when he signed a five-year, $60 million contract with the Cleveland Browns, but lasted only two years in Cleveland before getting traded to the New York Giants in 2019. His next stop was in Baltimore, where he played three seasons for the Ravens before landing with the Lions in 2024.

That’s quite a journey for a veteran who turns 35 in March.

It’s that last part, the whole ’35 years old’ thing, that concerns me. Could the Chicago Bears get one really good season out of Zeitler? Absolutely. But is that one really good season worth sacrificing a younger, multi-year starter who might cost (a lot) more to sign (think Trey Smith)? Absolutely not.

Remember another key point: the theory that Zeitler will help teach Bears players Ben Johnson’s system misses the mark. Johnson said during his introductory press conference that he’s tearing his playbook down to the studs and rebuilding it around Caleb Williams. Zeitler is a master of the Jared Goff Lions playbook, not the one Johnson will construct in Chicago.

Apples, meet oranges.

I’d be shocked, yet not unhappy if the Bears sign Zeitler. He’d be the definition of a short-term fix for a long-term problem. And that doesn’t seem to fit Chicago’s strategy at this point in their rebuild.

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