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Bears head coach Ben Johnson.

The Chicago Bears have broken their silence about the abrupt release of former fifth-round cornerback Zah Frazier ahead of their 2025 rookie minicamp.

The Bears officially waived Frazier — the 169th pick in the 2025 draft — on May 7 after the cornerback missed his entire rookie season due to unspecified personal reasons. He would have been eligible to participate in this week’s two-day minicamp at Halas Hall.

One day later, Bears head coach Ben Johnson elaborated on the decision to waive the 25-year-old cornerback before the start of OTAs, saying it was “time to part ways.”

“Zah’s a guy that we’ve had here for over a year, and it’s just one of those things when we’re looking at the roster — where he’s at and where we’re at — it was time to part ways,” Johnson told reporters on May 8. “So, [I] appreciate everything that he contributed while he was here, and it opens up a roster spot and an opportunity [for someone else] to make this team.”

Johnson also added, “We were hopeful [about Frazier], and it just wasn’t going that direction. The trajectory was off, so we decided to go a different direction.”

Zah Frazier Had ‘Mountain to Climb’ With Bears in 2026

Frazier seemed like a Day 3 selection with good potential when the Bears drafted him in the fifth round last April. While he was light on collegiate playing time, he had strong production for UTSA in 2024 and seemed like a fast, long-limbed defensive back who could potentially flourish under the guidance of Bears defensive backs coach Al Harris.

As Bears general manager Ryan Poles acknowledged in January, though, Frazier had a “mountain to climb” to become a contributor for their cornerback room in 2026 after he missed everything except for spring offseason workouts during his first year in the NFL.

“He needed to play,” Poles said plainly at his end-of-season news conference. “So, that’ll be up to him to be able to get himself in the right position to compete for a roster spot.”

Evidently, Frazier didn’t reach that position fast enough. The Bears moved on from him before even getting him on the field for their spring workouts, though their mindset for the 2026 NFL draft may have influenced their decision-making with Frazier’s future.

The Bears had cornerback reasonably high on their priorities list in the draft. Not only did they trade up in the fourth round for Texas standout Malik Muhammad, but ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler divulged they also were “high” on Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood and “eyed a trade-up in the second round” for him before choosing to “stand pat.”

Even getting only one of them made it that much harder for Frazier to make his climb.

Bears’ Cornerback Picture Becomes Clearer After Frazier’s Exit

Before Frazier’s departure, it seemed like the Bears could have a wide-open competition for the cornerback spots behind Jaylon Johnson and slot defender Kyler Gordon on the depth chart. But while the competition remains open, it seems much more obvious now which of their currently-rosted cornerbacks they expect to stick with them into 2026.

Johnson and Gordon are hard locks to make the 53-man roster. While both missed the majority of the 2025 season, they are both healthy again and ready to resume their roles as the Bears’ top two cornerbacks, which should naturally bolster the secondary unit.

The rest of the cornerbacks, including Muhammad, are fighting for their spots in the pecking order. Tyrique Stevenson seems the current favorite to win the No. 2 outside cornerback job opposite Johnson, but he has struggled with consistency over his past two seasons and will be looking for a new team next March if he doesn’t stabilize.

Stevenson will also face challenges from Muhammad and Terell Smith — a 2023 fifth-rounder who missed all of 2025 with a knee injury — during OTAs and training camp. The team’s trade-up efforts to land Muhammad would seem to give him the next-best odds of winning a starting job, but Smith has played well with limited reps in the past.

Regardless of which cornerback wins the No. 2 job, though, the Bears figure to keep all three of them on the roster unless an injury takes one out of the running. Frazier’s exit also likely means that Josh Blackwell, a core special-teams player, will make the team as the backup slot cornerback behind Gordon, despite a cap hit of about $2.6 million.