Chicago Bears’ most underrated draft pick could follow in the footsteps of 2025’s surprise star Kyle Monangai
The Chicago Bears traded up into the sixth-round of the 2026 NFL Draft to select Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg and he has the chance to be another late Day 3 steal for this team.
The Chicago Bears were heavily expected to attack the defensive line in the 2026 NFL Draft with obvious long-term needs both off the edge and on the interior. However, the first defensive line move wasn’t made until the team’s final selection of the weekend.
In the sixth-round, the Bears packaged both seventh-round picks (Nos. 239 and 241) to move up to the 213th overall pick to select Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg.
The former Yellow Jacket and Penn State standout is a freak of an athlete to add to the interior of Chicago’s defensive front. His 10.00 RAS score ranked second out of 2,278 defensive tackles since 1987. He’s a guy the Bears had on their radar all throughout the draft process as a Day 3 target and wasn’t someone they planned on missing out on.
Jordan van den Berg has a chance to be the most underrated pick of Chicago’s 2026 draft class
“For this guy, the most consistent word we have right now is alignment,” Bears national scout Brendan Rehor said after the selection of Jordan van den Berg. “So, our coaches have been pounding on the table for this kid for a long time, really the last two weeks. We kind of have a process where we will give the coaches a stack of guys in this Day 3 range and this kid’s name kept coming up pretty consistently. It’s basically a DNA match with what our coaches want and then also a high character kid from what our scouts gathered.”
It’s a similar process the coaches and scouts followed in the 2025 NFL Draft when the team landed Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai in the seventh-round. Fans were hoping for a top back to add to the offense, instead the staff waited out the position and found an absolute steal in Monangai, who went on to rush for 783 yards and five TDs as a rookie.
The Bears are hoping van den Berg can follow in those footsteps as the team’s next late-round draft pick to carve out a role for himself, and he certainly has the traits to do it.
During his time at Georgia Tech, van den Berg earned a full-time role on the defensive front. He totaled 67 tackles, 16.0 tackles for a loss, and 4.0 sacks in two seasons. At his Pro Day, van den Berg posted a 4.94 40-yard-dash with a 1.61 10-yard-split. His 20-yard-shuttle time of 2.75 was even more impressive.
What is Jordan van den Berg’s fit on Chicago’s defensive line and how he can earn a role for himself?
While DT was viewed as a bigger need than DE, the Bears loaded up on the interior in free agency adding Neville Gallimore, Kentavius Street, and James Lynch on one-year deals to add depth behind Gervon Dexter Sr. and veteran Grady Jarrett.
Now you can add van den Berg to the mix to compete against those veteran interior players for a roster spot this summer. It’ll also be great for van den Berg to learn behind someone like Jarrett.
“I would say the people I always watch is Jalen Carter, Fletcher Cox, and Grady Jarrett,” van den Berg told reporters. “Coach Simpson was my defensive line coach at Georgia Tech and he would show a lot of tape of when he was at the Falcons. We used to watch [Jarrett’s] teach-tape all of the time. That’s something I aspired to be like one day… I’m excited to learn [from Jarrett], I can’t wait to absorb all that information from him.”
After the 2026 season, Jarrett and van den Berg will be the only defensive tackles currently on Chicago’s roster. Learning behind Jarrett in 2026 will be valuable experience starting out of the gate until van den Berg earns more opportunities on the defensive front. And who’s to say van den Berg doesn’t impress quick enough to earn early playing time be the defensive version of Monangai in 2026?
