No defense recorded more turnovers last season than the Chicago Bears. Kevin Byard III played a big role in the havoc-wreaking Bears racking up a league-high 33 takeaways during the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n
Now the 32-year-old safety is reportedly headed east, where he’ll take his ball-hawking skills to the New England Patriots on a one-year, $9 million deal, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In 2025, Byard led the NFL in interceptions \u2014 a feat he also accomplished with the Tennessee Titans in 2017 \u2014 and finished as a first-team All-Pro for the third time in his career.<\/p>\n Byard picked off seven passes, accounting for 21.2% of the turnovers the Bears forced last season. He sniffed the career-high eight picks he logged with the Titans eight years earlier. At that time, he was a second-year player out of Middle Tennessee and he was playing for then-Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.<\/p>\n The two of them will be reunited in New England.<\/p>\n [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season<\/a>]<\/p>\n Byard, a 2016 third-round pick, spent the first seven-plus seasons of his career in Tennessee before he was traded midseason in 2023 to the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>. His time with his hometown Eagles<\/a> was short-lived, however.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n