Grading The Trade: Bears speed up their last pick of the 2026 NFL Draft, trading up to select freak athlete on the defensive line
The Chicago Bears make a second Day 3 trade up to finally address the defensive line with the sixth-round selection of Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg.
The Chicago Bears nearly went the entire 2026 NFL Draft without a defensive line selection despite the obvious needs off the edge and on the interior. After Day 2 of the draft, general manager Ryan Poles expressed confidence in the current group.
“At the defensive line position, Book’s coming along with Dayo, Sweat, Shemar. We feel good about those guys,” Poles explained. “Obviously we have one more day, so we can continue to add. But like what that group is and what they’re becoming and we feel like there is some developmental upside and like I said yesterday, with Year 2 in the system, we should be able to take the next step.”
With the team’s final pick of the draft, after packaging both seventh-round selections to move up into the sixth-round, the Bears finally land a defensive lineman in Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg.
What Jordan van den Berg brings to the Chicago Bears
I’ve been a firm believer throughout this process that the defensive tackle position was a lot bigger need for Chicago than edge rusher, even if it was viewed as a weaker position in the class. The Bears felt similarly with this selection and officially did not draft a single edge rusher in the 2026 NFL Draft.
But, let’s talk about van den Berg. Similar to the fourth-round, the Bears moved up the board after watching a prospect they met with at the same position come off the board.
In the fourth-round, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sniped Miami defensive back Keionte Scott and a few picks later the Bears moved up for Texas defensive back Malik Muhammad. Just before the Bears selected van den Berg, the Atlanta Falcons drafted Washington defensive tackle Anterio Thompson, who met with Chicago on a 30 visit.
While I would have preferred Thompson, ven den Berg does is intriguing. He’s a late bloomer to football and a former member of the “Freaks List” given his size and relentless motor. He also has one of the best RAS scores for a DT since 1987.
van den Berg posted elite speed grades in the pre-draft process and is just a little heavier compared to the Dennis Allen type. Dane Brugler of The Athletic had this to say about van den Berg’s character “his coaches said he was one of the team’s best leaders because of the example he set.”
With this pick, the Bears round out the 2026 class and now can turn their attention to the high priority UDFA options, an area where Poles has found great success in the past.
Grade: B+