The Chicago Bears on Wednesday announced that the club has signed linebacker Jack Sanborn to a one-year deal and defensive lineman James Lynch to a one-year deal.
Sanborn returns to Chicago in 2026 after spending last season with the Dallas Cowboys (2025). Sanborn started five-of-six games played for the Cowboys in 2025, before being placed on Reserve/Injured. Entering the league as an undrafted free agent with the Bears in 2022, Sanborn has appeared in 52 career games (24 starts) with Chicago (2022-24) and Dallas (2025), seeing action in all 17 games for the Bears in 2023 and 2024. Over his career, Sanborn has amassed 183 tackles (118 solo), including 15 tackles for loss, adding 15 total special teams tackles. As a rookie in 2022, Sanborn was named a recipient of the Brian Piccolo Award. A native of Lake Zurich, Ill., Sanborn appeared in 45 career games over four seasons at Wisconsin (2018-21), earning All-Big Ten Conference honors following each of his final two seasons with the Badgers (2020 and '21), including First-Team recognition in 2021 after registering a career-high 91 tackles, including 16 tackles for loss, fourth-most by any defender in the Big Ten.
Lynch joins the Bears in 2026 after spending the last two seasons as a member of the Tennessee Titans (2024-25), appearing in all 17 regular-season games each of the last two seasons for Tennessee. Since entering the league as a fourth-round selection (130th overall) by the Minnesota Vikings in 2020, Lynch has totaled 71 career regular-season games played (four starts) for the Vikings (2020-23) and Titans (2024-25), amassing 98 career tackles (51 solo), including seven tackles for loss consisting of 3.5 sacks, along with three passes defensed and one fumble recovery. A native of Round Rock, Texas, Lynch prepped collegiately at Baylor (2017-19), setting the program's all-time record for sacks in a career (23.0) in just 38 games played and three seasons of action. Following his final season of action (2019), Lynch, who led the Big 12 Conference with 13.5 sacks, was a unanimous All-American, being named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.
