Football’s out for summer. The Chicago Bears ended their offseason program last week and will be off for the summer for the next six weeks.

Chicago wrapped up its program over the past month and a half with a mandatory three-day minicamp last week. Bears head coach Ben Johnson used the time to get back to the basics and set a new foundation for a team attempting to return the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2006.

Now the players will be away from Halas Hall for six weeks before the real work starts in training camp.

The Bears showed signs of hope in the spring even without any live hitting. Quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense looked like it picked up from where it left off in the playoffs. The defense impressed at times after Bears general manager Ryan Poles re-imagined it during the offseason.

But there are still some questions Poles and Johnson will need to answer before everyone reconvenes at Halas at the end of July. Here are four questions the Bears will need to answer after their offseason program.

Will the Bears add a veteran pass rusher?

The Bears looked internally to fix their pass rush issues during the offseason. But does that mean they won’t add a veteran edge rusher before the start of training camp?

Poles didn’t make a splash acquisition since the season ended to boost an inconsistent pass rush. He signed a few rotational players for the middle of the defensive line in free agency and added to the group late in the draft. But Poles didn’t bring in a new player to put on the edges.

There are still plenty of veteran options Poles could choose to add to the room before camp starts late next month. Joey Bosa, Haason Reddick, Cam Jordan, Kyle Van Noy and Jadeveon Clowney are all older, experienced pass rushers who might want to join a contender like the Bears.

The cost will make the biggest difference for Chicago. After re-working some contracts over the past month, the Bears will have roughly $8.3 million in salary cap space, according to Over The Cap. The Bears still need to sign one more of their draft picks, so the remaining options would need to decide whether they want one final pay day or would rather contend for a potential last chance at a Super Bowl.

Regardless of what the Bears do, the players in the room were confident they had

“I think we got everybody,“ defensive tackle Gervon Dexter said. ”We got each player, each person in our room knows what they are capable of, so we don’t look at it as, like, a bad thing. We’re taking it on and we’re ready to get after it together."

Does Chicago have its starting left tackle?

For the second straight year, the Bears will enter training camp with a competition for the starting left tackle spot.

Four different players took snaps at left tackle during the portions that were open to reporters over the spring. Braxton Jones and Kiran Amegadjie split time with the first-team offense while Theo Benedet and Jedrick Wills Jr. also earned some.

It’s important to remember that there was no live hitting over the spring. So coaches won’t get a real idea of what each player can do until the pads come on in the summer.

Jones is likely to get a good opportunity to win the job. Taylor Decker, who played at the spot with Johnson in Detroit, still remains a free agent. But the Bears are likely to stay in-house at the spot rather than look for an outside option.

Johnson didn’t find his starting left tackle until Ozzy Trapilo won the job midway through last season before he got injured in the playoffs. The Bears are hoping this search doesn’t take as long.

“Hopefully that’s not the case,” Johnson said. “You don’t like that, you like to have a little clarity earlier on so that you can go into Week One feeling pretty settled on every spot. But you know we’ll do whatever it takes as long as these competition take to have some clarity, we’ll do that.”

What’s next for Kyler Gordon?

This year’s offseason program offered some clarity about the team’s roster. But it also created unexpected questions too.

One of the biggest questions surrounded slot cornerback Kyler Gordon. After only appearing in three games in the regular season last year because of injuries, Gordon missed a good portion of the offseason program with another apparent injury. He was limited in one Organized Team Activities (OTA) practice open to reporters and didn’t take part in minicamp.

The development is a bit of a concern after Poles signed Gordon to an extension last offseason. Gordon hasn’t gotten a chance to work with Bears coaches over a long period of time since they arrived last year. Johnson said he still doesn’t fully know who Gordon is as a player since he hasn’t been on the field.

There’s a good chance that Gordon will be healthy when training camp starts and he’ll live up to the Bears’ expectations. But he’ll be doing it with a delayed start.

“We’re still trying to get that availability piece going,” Johnson said. “We know he’s a good player when he’s out there but trust level is a huge thing for this team, for this coaching staff, for the locker room and you can only develop that trust by being available.”

Are injuries heading the right way?

Chicago faced a bevy of injuries at the end of the playoffs. A few were headed in right direction at the end of last week while others are still up in the air.

Some key contributors returned to the field at portions of the offseason. The two biggest were linebacker T.J. Edwards and defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo. Both took part in minicamp activities and seemed on the right path toward training camp, especially Odeyingbo.

“This is really a bonus for us,” Johnson said. “We weren’t quite sure when we started the offseason program that we would get him for any length of time. But the fact that he’s on the field, he wants to be out there, it’s just another step forward in terms of him gaining confidence again.”

There are other questions that are still up in the air.

“I think we got everybody. We got each player, each person in our room knows what they are capable of, so we don’t look at it as, like, a bad thing. We’re taking it on and we’re ready to get after it together.”

—  Gervon Dexter, Bears defensive tackle

Defensive lineman Shemar Turner’s return from a midseason ACL tear will depend on how he recovers over the next six weeks. Johnson said the Bears will see how he recovers over the summer before everyone returns to Halas to determine what’s next for the former second-round pick.

Linebacker Noah Sewell is still recovering from an Achilles injury he suffered toward the end of last season. Trapilo will continue his recovery as he aims to return toward the latter part of next season.