Outside Linebacker · Chicago Bears

T.J. Edwards

No. 53 · 8th season

The defense gets its leader back on the field

Training camp is where teams figure out who they are. For the Chicago Bears, one piece of that answer is a linebacker named T.J. Edwards — and this week, he was back.

Edwards has built a reputation as one of the Bears' defensive leaders. That kind of role isn't handed out; it's earned through the way you practice, the way you talk, and the way younger players watch you when things get hard.

He had been away from the field, held out of football activities due to a non-football injury — the kind of absence that is easy to overlook on the outside and impossible to ignore inside a locker room.

His return matters less because of what he does on any single play and more because of what his presence does to the people around him. A team's defense takes its shape from the people who set its tone. Edwards is one of those people.

Now he's back at camp. The Bears get to find out what they look like with him.

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