The Bears 2026 Draft Thread

[BearsWillWin]

Roush might turn out to be one of the better blocking TEs in the league, plus we shouldn't discount the times he'll be receiving passes,

Cool.

So let's look at where some the best blocking TEs in the NFL were drafted....

Drew Ogletree - 6th round
Jack Stoll - Undrafted
Charlie Woerner - 6th round
Will Dissly - 4th round
John Bates - 4th round

George Kittle might be the best, and he also catches passes, and was drafted in the 5th.

Dallas Goedert was a 2nd round pick but he's also TE1 on that roster these days.



There is pretty much no good explanation, outside of you're trading Cole Kmet, to take a TE in the 3rd round when your roster has other needs.

The "but he can block" excuse is gonna look really silly when we are generating no pass rush next season and there's some rookie edge on another roster performing well.

 

[BearsWillWin]

The Bears secondary this past season wasn't good. The turnovers were awesome but, generally spreaking, that unit was poor overall. Some of it was because of JJ and Gordon being hurt all season and some of it was because they were just slow. So Poles fixed that. He let players walk and signs Bryant and drafts help. All good.

The Bears pass rush was also poor. Poles did.....next to nothing about it.

The issue I have with that is the relationship between the pass rush and pass coverage. One impacts the other and while it can be said that improving the backend helps the frontend it's much, much easier to improve your pass coverage by upgrading your pass rush than it is the other way around. This is something that has been known to anyone that watches football since the forward pass was invented.

Poles has done a lot of good in Chicago. But he far too often has built the team, on both sides of the ball, in ways that just defies logic and makes his job harder in the long run.

If 3 of his picks from this draft don't hit and hit hard it's going to be very, very bad for this franchise.

 

[Payton]

And to add to BWW, reminder that there were fans calling for Dennis Allen’s head last season. Way premature, I think we here agree, BUT…. If Allen WERE to get sacked, and we have supposedly built the defensive roster SO specifically to his tendencies, it will take multiple seasons to fix…

 

[Jiddy]

Cool.

So let's look at where some the best blocking TEs in the NFL were drafted....

Drew Ogletree - 6th round
Jack Stoll - Undrafted
Charlie Woerner - 6th round
Will Dissly - 4th round
John Bates - 4th round

George Kittle might be the best, and he also catches passes, and was drafted in the 5th.

Dallas Goedert was a 2nd round pick but he's also TE1 on that roster these days.



There is pretty much no good explanation, outside of you're trading Cole Kmet, to take a TE in the 3rd round when your roster has other needs.

The "but he can block" excuse is gonna look really silly when we are generating no pass rush next season and there's some rookie edge on another roster performing well.

The TE pick was by far the biggest reach of the draft considering our situation. We have a arguably a top 5 TE room and a million holes at the other positions. So yeah.

The Bears secondary this past season wasn't good. The turnovers were awesome but, generally spreaking, that unit was poor overall. Some of it was because of JJ and Gordon being hurt all season and some of it was because they were just slow. So Poles fixed that. He let players walk and signs Bryant and drafts help. All good.

The Bears pass rush was also poor. Poles did.....next to nothing about it.

The issue I have with that is the relationship between the pass rush and pass coverage. One impacts the other and while it can be said that improving the backend helps the frontend it's much, much easier to improve your pass coverage by upgrading your pass rush than it is the other way around. This is something that has been known to anyone that watches football since the forward pass was invented.

Poles has done a lot of good in Chicago. But he far too often has built the team, on both sides of the ball, in ways that just defies logic and makes his job harder in the long run.

If 3 of his picks from this draft don't hit and hit hard it's going to be very, very bad for this franchise.

Our o-line was a problem forever...They finally address it last season and we win. One day we'll say the same about the d-line. There's probably some confidence bordering on arrogance happening here since we had success with what we had on the field last season at D-line. Despite what Ben Johnson says about last season being history, we were one bad play from the NFC Championship game with a terrible pass rush. That's kind of crazy and I'm doubtful they can match it...but it looks like THEY think they can.

 

[beardown07]

The only "positive" to me, is that Booker really seemed to come on late in the season, with his best game being against the Rams.

If Shemar Turner can step it up, and Booker can keep up his pace of trending upward, maybe things will be better than they seem up front.

 

[wood20ks]

 

[beardown07]

Do we get Plank/Fencik or Conte/Archuleta?

Will Logan Jones start soon and be the THE guy going forward.


The outcomes of the above will mostly determine whether this draft was good or not.


And you know someone else will step up of the remaining. I like Muhammad or the Vanilla Gorilla to be those guys..

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Do we get Plank/Fencik or Conte/Archuleta?

Will Logan Jones start soon and be the THE guy going forward.


The outcomes of the above will mostly determine whether this draft was good or not.


And you know someone else will step up of the remaining. I like Muhammad or the Vanilla Gorilla to be those guys..

I'll vote Plank/Fencik. And the cool part is we'll get the best of both players wrapped in one. I have no way of knowing, but from the post draft articles and videos I've been catching as to how he fits BJ's scheme, it sounds like Jones will be our starting C by midseason at the latest and probably earlier.

I like the early takes on the Vanilla Gorilla - if for no other reason than that hilarious nick. But I'm gonna venture a guess that an early surprise breakout is gonna be greased lightning Zavion Thomas.

 

[NCChiFan]

Cool.

So let's look at where some the best blocking TEs in the NFL were drafted....

Drew Ogletree - 6th round
Jack Stoll - Undrafted
Charlie Woerner - 6th round
Will Dissly - 4th round
John Bates - 4th round

George Kittle might be the best, and he also catches passes, and was drafted in the 5th.

Dallas Goedert was a 2nd round pick but he's also TE1 on that roster these days.



There is pretty much no good explanation, outside of you're trading Cole Kmet, to take a TE in the 3rd round when your roster has other needs.

The "but he can block" excuse is gonna look really silly when we are generating no pass rush next season and there's some rookie edge on another roster performing well.

Pretty sure our Offensive minded head coach views your opinion of the "need" of a third quality Tight End as not as necessary to his opinion on need of a quality 3rd TE being a major need for his offense going forward. Also, he made that pick after 5 TE's where all drafted before pick 69 of the Bears in round 3, then additionally 3 more TE's where picked in round 3 for a total of 9 TE's drafted in the first 3 rounds. Is something fishy going on in the NFL with the value of TE's? Perhaps this, the #1 offense last season, ran the most 3 TE sets in the NFL in 2025. I'm thinking Defenses have not figured out how to manage a 3TE set, are they running the ball? Are they throwing the ball? Do we need more LB's or more Safeties? More CB's? If the D sets the field up for pass, the Run is the play... and Vice Versa.... let your LB's handle receiving TE's the play is going to be a pass.

Apparently, as I see it, the values from a few years ago do not seem to matter as much due to the flavor of the year being multiple TE sets.

 

[NCChiFan]

View attachment 427740

Hard to argue with Ben's results last year. Did I like the fact they ignored DE and DT until round 6, then only tossed out a maybe? No. But, the draft didn't fall right or we would be talking about Ben's & Poles reaches at DE or DT, like we are discussing Minnesota's bad reach on Banks (possibly).

 

[BearsWillWin]

Spin your wheels all you want. Taking a guy that will be #3 on the depth chart when you have holes at #1 and #2 at certain positions on your roster is asking for future problems.

I don't think the average offensive coodinator lays awake at night scared of offensive formations with three tight ends. But that's just me. I'm ******* silly.

 

[BearsWillWin]

No. But, the draft didn't fall right

Not trying to be a dick but I hate when fans say this.

Who's board you looking at? Were you in the war room?

Not even Mel Kiper actually knows how the draft is falling for any particular GM. Might be the most overblown talking point imaginable when it comes to football.

 

[NCChiFan]

Not trying to be a dick but I hate when fans say this.

Who's board you looking at? Were you in the war room?

Not even Mel Kiper actually knows how the draft is falling for any particular GM. Might be the most overblown talking point imaginable when it comes to football.

Is there any other clear explanation? Do so explain. I've watched a bunch of "expert" commentators talking Bears draft, v. draft overall, like the TE pick. Had not all those TE's drafted before the Bears pick in round 3, bet the Bears wait until round 4 to grab a TE. Instead, they went flying off the Board with 5 taking in the first 2 rounds. So, that 3rd round pick was dictated (apparently) by how the draft fell. The commentators mentioned this with the odd, and it is odd, no DE selection by the Bears.

Another example. What if the Vikqueens had taken Dillon stead of broken wheel Banks, which many Viking fans are curious about? Who would the Bears had selected in the First Round?

 

[Jiddy]

We should all get "I believe in Dayo" T-shirts.

 

[DJ "I'm blessed" Fieri]

View attachment 427740

Not valid it doesn't have the Raiders.

We killed it.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Not valid it doesn't have the Raiders.

We killed it.

Your boyz did very well in the draft, but then again you should have when you had the league's worst record. But that notwithstanding, you did quite well. I also liked the Browns and Giants drafts too.

 

[DJ "I'm blessed" Fieri]

Your boyz did very well in the draft, but then again you should have when you had the league's worst record. But that notwithstanding, you did quite well. I also liked the Browns and Giants drafts too.

The Jets as well....

Maybe the Raiders, Jets and Browns are set to turn it around?

 

[BearsWillWin]

Is there any other clear explanation? Do so explain. I've watched a bunch of "expert" commentators talking Bears draft, v. draft overall, like the TE pick. Had not all those TE's drafted before the Bears pick in round 3, bet the Bears wait until round 4 to grab a TE. Instead, they went flying off the Board with 5 taking in the first 2 rounds. So, that 3rd round pick was dictated (apparently) by how the draft fell. The commentators mentioned this with the odd, and it is odd, no DE selection by the Bears.

The reason why I won't just swallow the there was a run on TEs so they had to take the guy they wanted....the draft board just fell that way is because just a short while later they took a wide receiver that most people saw as a 3rd day receiver and not an early pick.

I can't see Poles draft board. I'm not in the room when these things are done. I refuse to speculate and pretend I know the facts when there's no possible chance I could.

What I will do is judge what I do know and what I can see. The Bears had needs elsewhere when they took a #3 tight end.

Another example. What if the Vikqueens had taken Dillon stead of broken wheel Banks, which many Viking fans are curious about? Who would the Bears had selected in the First Round?

Who cares? That the mootest point I've ever seen.

 

[wood20ks]

Hard to argue with Ben's results last year. Did I like the fact they ignored DE and DT until round 6, then only tossed out a maybe? No. But, the draft didn't fall right or we would be talking about Ben's & Poles reaches at DE or DT, like we are discussing Minnesota's bad reach on Banks (possibly).

I didn't care much for our draft last season,but by mid season,I absolutley loved it......
I'm hoping it follows suit as last season......

We were all shocked by taking a te at 3........head shaking pick.

I'm guessing they think CW needs more weapons for whatever reason......

 

[DJ "I'm blessed" Fieri]

Your boyz did very well in the draft, but then again you should have when you had the league's worst record. But that notwithstanding, you did quite well. I also liked the Browns and Giants drafts too.

The Bears did a good job as well....

Still think y'all should be working in bringing in Clowney for the DL since you didn't address it in the draft. Just depends on the cost and it may not happen till late May or even early June. He seems to take his time on signing a new deal the last few years or so.