A motivated Chicago Bears DE Dayo Odeyingbo is grateful for the adversity he has faced after 2 torn Achilles

Dayo Odeyingbo woke up on the morning of Nov. 2 and knew with absolute certainty that something big was going to happen. He could feel it. He didn’t know what it might be, but he knew it was coming.

“Sometimes you just have a feeling,” Odeyingbo said.

Odeyingbo, then in his first season with the Chicago Bears, had been diving into his faith more. During a Saturday night Bible study at the team hotel in Cincinnati, the group talked about being thankful. The session lingered with Odeyingbo the following morning as he headed to Paycor Stadium for a midseason matchup against the Bengals.

“Before the game I said, ‘I’m going to be thankful for whatever happens today,'” Odeyingbo said.

The Bears found themselves in an epic shootout with the Bengals that afternoon. They led 34-27 midway through the fourth quarter when Odeyingbo lined up across from Bengals right tackle Amarius Mims. On a first-down play, Odeyingbo worked his way 10 yards upfield before crumpling to the turf in a heap and grabbing at his lower right leg.

Odeyingbo knew exactly what had happened. Four years earlier, he had torn the Achilles tendon in his left leg while preparing for the 2021 draft. The Indianapolis Colts selected him out of Vanderbilt with the No. 54 pick, but the injury took months to recover from, and he missed the first seven games of the season.

Four years later in Cincinnati, he sat on the trainer’s table with another torn Achilles — this time in his right leg — and he said, “Thank you, Jesus.”

“That was the first thing I said,” Odeyingbo recalled. “The trainers were looking at me like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

It would mark the end of Odeyingbo’s season. He joined the Bears just a few months earlier on a three-year, $48 million contract, and the team hoped he would emerge as a dangerous force opposite Pro Bowl defensive end Montez Sweat.

When he joined the Bears in March 2025, Odeyingbo talked about how grateful he was to go through his first Achilles injury, calling it “a blessing in disguise.” One might presume that a second torn Achilles would test that gratitude, but not so with Odeyingbo.

“I always tell everybody, I’ve never had a bad thing happen to me in my life,” Odeyingbo said. “Everything that’s always happened to me, no matter what it’s been, it’s been good. Whether it’s injury, whether it’s adversity, it’s always a good thing. It’s always what you make of it. That was my mentality about it. I’m in a good place right now, I’m excited for this year.”

Through eight games last year, Odeyingbo never quite broke out like the Bears had hoped. He had one sack before the injury, and it came in the season opener. His QB pressure rate of 7.3% was the lowest since his rookie season. As a team, the Bears finished with only 35 sacks, which ranked tied for 22nd among 32 teams.

Despite their struggles creating pressure, the Bears did not make any significant adjustments at defensive end heading into 2026. This team still is leaning on Sweat, Odeyingbo and third-year pass rusher Austin Booker to be their big names on the edge.

They’re essentially running it back with the same group, putting a focus on coaching the position better and hoping adjustments at linebacker and in the secondary will give the defensive line more time to reach the quarterback.

Coach Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen both said in the spring that last year they probably focused too much on the scheme and not enough on the fundamentals.

“There’s a lot been made of the pass rush, right?” Allen said last week. “There’s no example of team defense that it’s better exemplified than in pass defense. … Our focus is not necessarily this area (or) this area. It’s completely as a team, how are we going to improve as a team.”

Allen envisions Odeyingbo as a versatile pass-rushing chess piece. The Bears view him as one of their four best pass rushers, and sometimes that means kicking him inside on obvious passing downs.

“You’re talking about a role, a guy that’s a first- and second-down big (defensive) end is how you define it, with flexibility to rush inside on third down,” defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett said. “Not to say he can’t rush outside. But if we’re going to put the best grouping out there, then there’s a possibility you’ve got to look at him going inside on passing downs.”

Odeyingbo said that role has helped him throughout his career. Last season he lined up at defensive tackle on about 16% of his defensive snaps, per NFL Pro.

Regardless of where he’s lining up, though, he’s happy to be back on the field. His recovery moved quickly over the offseason, and he was back on the practice field in the spring, ahead of schedule.

“The times I’ve played my best football, I’ve just focused on attacking, getting off the ball, and I think that’s going to show up a lot this year,” Odeyingbo said.

And yes, Odeyingbo has seen the internet memes. “ Motivated Dayo” has become something of a common refrain among Bears fans on social media. While Odeyingbo is not on social media much, his friends and family have sent him some of the content. He laughed about it after practice Wednesday at Halas Hall.

Football is entertainment, Odeyingbo said. So if his recovery and what he hopes will be a bounceback year can be entertainment for fans online, he’s all for it.

But as for his real-life motivation? It’s simpler than that.

“I would just say being able to play football is a blessing,” Odeyingbo said. “That’s always the reminder. Anyone who has been through an injury, it kind of brings you back to reality and it reminds you of how lucky you are to be able to go out and play football.”