Bears are taking particular interest in a certain position group that many might have overlooked based on meetings so far at the 2025 Combine
The Chicago Bears have had a slightly busy week at the 2025 NFL Combine, and that continued on Day 3. After hearing from the tight ends and safeties this week, the Bears have been showing some particular interest in one of those positions that you might not think they would have been interested in, safety.Going […]
The Chicago Bears have had a slightly busy week at the 2025 NFL Combine, and that continued on Day 3. After hearing from the tight ends and safeties this week, the Bears have been showing some particular interest in one of those positions that you might not think they would have been interested in, safety.
Going into 2025, the Bears have both starters returning at the position in veteran team captain Kevin Byard and fourth-year Jaquan Brisker.
But, the more you look into the room, the more sense it makes as to why the Bears are looking into multiple safeties in this class.
Byard has one year remaining on his two-year contract signed last offseason and will be 32-years-old by the time the 2025 season kicks off.
As for Brisker, he's coming off his third concussion in three years and the latest forced him to miss 12 games in 2024. He's also entering the final year of his rookie deal.
As good as these two players can be together, you have to worry about their long-term outlook with the team. Even beyond those two, the Bears only have three other safeties in the room under contract for next season.
When looking at the roster needs for this team, safety might be overlooked outside the building, but the front office is making sure they do their due diligence on the incoming class to see if there's anyone worth selecting in this year's draft.
On Thursday, we learned the Bears held meetings with Penn State's Kevin Winston, Texas' Andrew Mukuba, and Iowa's Sebastian Castro.
Winston, out of Penn State, is the most intriguing out of the trio, and only because Poles also drafted Brisker out of the same program in 2022. In fact, the two have even been compared similarly coming into the draft, although Brisker was more polished.
Even still, Winston is an incredible tackling safety and works very well in the run game or in a deep zone. Winston is projected to be a late-second, early-third round pick, which would be a steal. It's also a range in which the Bears hold three selections.
Mukuba decided not to attend the Senior Bowl, which makes his combine interviews and testings even more important. He's a hard hitting player who even made some clutch defensive plays such as his game-clinching interception against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. Mukuba rotated a lot in the backend with the Longhorns, which should appeal to some teams, like the Bears, as a versatile depth option.
Castro would be a great story if he were to land in Chicago. He grew up being a Bears fan and went to school at Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Poles has taken interest in local guys before, and Castro could be next on that list.
As a player, Castro is another run-stuffing, versatile safety, which follows the same trend as the other two players mentioned above. He was all over the field for the Hawkeyes in 2024 and projects to be a mid-round pick that could be a valuable rotational player given his play style.
Chicago Bears 2025 Combine Meeting Tracker: Which prospects met with the team, and who could be on their radar?
They got their eyes on some top talent.
