Although late July is still three months away, the last big piece of the offseason puzzle is just days away from being solved as the 2026 NFL Draft kicks off in Pittsburgh on Thursday with the start of Round 1. For the first time in five seasons, the Chicago Bears find themselves picking outside the Top 10, which may feel like less excitement on the surface, but the importance of this class remains paramount.

Following a relatively conservative free agent period and a few surprise subtractions, the Bears will head into draft weekend with a laundry list of needs and seven picks to help fill them. Luckily for general manager Ryan Poles and his front office, the team will have four selections in the Top 89 picks and five picks in the first four rounds overall. With the margin for error thinner than it should be for a team coming off an 11-win season and their first playoff victory in 15 seasons, we’ll try our best to set the stage for draft weekend with a special edition of our 10 Bears Takes.

1) I’ve concluded that no matter who the Bears select on Thursday, nothing is going to look “great” on paper. More on why it feels like No. 25 is no-man’s land. 

Now, that doesn’t mean the pick won’t work out by any means, but for me, it’s hard to get overly excited about the Bears’ options late in the first round. The NFL Draft landscape has changed drastically in a short time due to the ever-changing NIL deals. College players are taking the money and staying in school, which means older seniors and fewer underclassmen are declaring. For a second straight year, we’ve seen older classes with less talent than usual.

There’s no telling whether this will become the new normal, but in the short term, this is the situation the Bears and 31 other NFL teams find themselves in. In addition to those factors, this is the first time since 2021 that Chicago is slated to make a selection outside of the Top 10, and just the second time overall since 2014 when they took Kyle Fuller with the No. 14 overall pick.

Typically, successful teams stay successful no matter where they draft, and while that might end up being the case again this year, it does feel as though most of last year’s playoff teams will be at a disadvantage during the first round on Thursday night.

With that being said, there are still a few different approaches the Bears could take once the first round opens. The first of which would be to simply trade down. Every year, the majority of the NFL’s 32 fanbases have the trade-up and trade-down conversations, and more often than not, nothing ever comes to fruition. The good news for Chicago this year: history is on their side when it comes to the likelihood of pulling off a trade. The recent history of the final 10 picks of Round 1 being traded has plenty of merit.

While trading up for a player they covet is always an option, the Bears aren’t exactly in a position to be giving away additional draft capital, considering the long list of remaining needs.

In the scenario where a trade doesn’t work out, the mindset could be one of two approaches.

Target their top needs, even if it goes against higher graded players on their overall board.

Every general manager in the league will claim their approach is to take the best player available, but often their boards omit positions that won’t be needed in the short or long term. As a specific example, more geared toward the Bears’ situation, they wouldn’t take a quarterback or tight end at 25, considering what they already have on their roster. Positional value also plays its role, but this late in the first round, that’s not a position on the board that should be “off limits” to Chicago.

Ultimately, picking at 25 in this particular class must come with a general understanding that, between positional value and the overall talent level, there isn’t going to be any “slam dunk” selection come Thursday night. Even so, adding the best player at a position of need should be the goal, but acquiring additional draft capital, even if that means dropping out of the first round completely, might make the most sense in the end. No matter the result, finding a Week 1 starter is a must after such a conservative free agency period.

2) For as much as the defensive line feels like an obvious need, I can’t help but feel like the Bears don’t share the same urgency. 

To be abundantly clear, this is just a gut feeling. This is nothing that I’ve heard, but the continual mention of players like Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner have led me to believe that with a so-so draft class and some veteran free agents remaining on the market that should be there into July, the need that fans see on paper won’t be met with as much urgency if all the chips don’t line up like they many are hoping for.

Now, to be clear, that doesn’t mean that I don’t foresee them adding to this group with a pick in their first four selections. Simply put, I’m just not convinced that we’ll see them add multiple Day 1 and 2 names to the mix. In a more likely scenario, based on how the board is stacking up, defensive end makes the most sense early. Whether that’s in the first round or with one of their second-round picks, my assumption is that’s where the one “guaranteed” addition on the defensive line will come.

It’s also worth mentioning that this defensive tackle class isn’t a great one. Not only does it lack any semblance of top-end talent (within the first 10 to 15 picks), but the majority of the top graded players on the consensus board aren’t prototypical fits in Dennis Allen’s scheme. Much has been made about his preferences, especially when it comes to the draft. Still, barring a significant change in philosophy, I find it hard to believe that guys like Kayden McDonald, Domonique Orange, etc., are truly that high on their board, if at all.

Typically, Allen has targeted smaller interior defensive linemen. One name that stands out in the late first or early second is Peter Woods, but his troubling workout numbers, combined with his lack of length and overall size, will make for an interesting discussion. Outside of Woods, the prototypical three techniques are mostly players that project closer to the bottom end of the Top 100 into Day 3.

Maybe I’ll be wrong, and in the end, they’ll value some of these bigger nose tackle types like a McDonald, Orange, or even Christen Miller. Assuming Allen stays more to his preferred physical build, the board for them really starts in the late second or third round with players like Gracen Halton, Zane Durant, Kaleb Proctor, Landon Robinson, and David Gusta ranging through the end of Round 7.

That brings me back to the conclusion that while I would expect them to add a defensive lineman over their first three to four picks, I’m not convinced we’ll see multiple investments over the first three rounds. The deeper I’ve gone into this class, the more it makes sense to stick with and take the best player available at each of their short-term and long-term needs. We’ll dive deeper into the additional spots they could look to add in a few. Still, heading into Thursday night, I expect that defensive end is going to be an easier “find” in terms of value than anything at defensive tackle until we get to the later rounds.

3) The longer the draft process has gone along, the more I’m convinced that left tackle is a spot they’ll seriously consider at No. 25 if the right player is on the board.