The following is the seventh of nine position previews in advance of training camp.

For a third consecutive season, the Bears linebackers will be led by veterans Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards, who both joined the Bears in 2023 via free agency and have become an integral tandem on defense.

Edmunds enters his eighth NFL season, having spent his first five years with the Bills. Starting all 106 career games he's appeared in, Edmunds has totaled 788 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 50 passes defensed, 10 interceptions and four forced fumbles.

A first-round selection in the 2018 draft, Edmunds has recorded 100+ tackles in each of his seven seasons and is the youngest player in NFL history to reach 100 career games played.

While Edmunds is an established piece in Chicago, he expects to experience some change with new defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, but is eager to work with him.

"Obviously a guy that had success in the league over in New Orleans," Edmunds said. "They had a lot of good years, good defenses ... just his energy, man, and what he demands from his players, I think that's the number one thing that sticks out. He holds the guys accountable. You can see that at an early stage. If we're messing up on something, he's got to call you out for it, but it's a good call out, you know what I mean? It keeps everybody on their toes, keeps everybody responsible as far as getting that playbook and, like I said, man, just his energy on the field. You definitely feel that."

Edwards joined the league one year after Edmunds, rising from an undrafted rookie that signed with the Eagles in 2019 to earning a two-year contract extension with the Bears in April.

In six seasons of action, Edwards has played in 95 games with 81 starts, accumulating 673 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 23 passes defensed, six interceptions and four forced fumbles. Edwards has started in all 17 games for the Bears during each of his two seasons in Chicago, tallying 282 tackles between 2023 and 2024.

"T.J. is an unbelievable teammate and leader," general manager Ryan Poles said in April. "He's someone that we lean on to depend on to carry our defense. It's been really cool to see him grow."

Also in the mix at linebacker are veteran returners Noah Sewell and Amen Ogbongbemiga.

Sewell was drafted by the Bears in 2023 and has appeared in 22 games over two seasons, playing primarily on special teams.

Ogbongbemiga inked a two-year extension with the Bears in March after joining the team in 2024, a season where he appeared in all 17 games and tied for the team lead with a career-high 11 special teams tackles.

The Nigeria native entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Chargers in 2021 and has appeared in 63 career games, totaling 27 tackles on defense, 2.0 sacks and two fumble recoveries.

A new face in the linebacker room is fourth-round selection Ruben Hyppolite II, who played collegiately at Maryland (2022-24). In three seasons, he played in 51 games and tallied 236 tackles, 3.0 sacks, one interception, six passes defensed and one forced fumble. In 2023, he served as a team captain for the Terrapins and earned Third-Team All-Big Ten honors.

At the end of the offseason program in June, Ben Johnson identified Hyppolite as one of four under-the-radar players that stood out to the Bears coach.

"I thought the player we probably saw the most improvement from when he stepped in to now was Ruben Hyppolite," Johnson said. "He's done a nice job learning. He's swimming a little bit, but he's taking it seriously. [Linebackers] Coach Richard Smith has done a fantastic job with him over the course of the last few weeks."

The Bears also feature three young depth pieces in the linebacker room heading into training camp – returner Carl Jones, free-agent signing Swayze Bozeman and undrafted rookie Power Echols.

Bozeman signed with the Chiefs practice squad as a rookie in 2024 and made three appearances, while Jones spent the majority of his rookie campaign on the Bears practice squad. Echols appeared in 52 career games during his collegiate career at North Carolina, totaling 307 career tackles and being named a All-ACC honoree three times.