If there was one pick in the Chicago Bears‘ 2026 draft class that caused confusion, it was Sam Roush. Remember, the team had already taken tight end Colston Loveland in the 1st round in 2025. They still had Cole Kmet, who isn’t going anywhere. Yet you spend a 3rd round pick on a third tight end? People couldn’t understand it. With several other positions that needed help, it felt like an unnecessary pick. Trent Dilfer doesn’t think so. The former Super Bowl champion quarterback knows exactly what the Bears were doing.
Dilfer knows Roush better than most. The tight end spent his high school career at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. The former quarterback was his head coach from his sophomore year through graduation. It didn’t take Dilfer long to realize Roush was special. He explained to Peggy Kusinski on her podcast that Chicago’s decision made perfect sense for two reasons.
One was economics. Tight ends are cheaper than wide receivers once they reach second contracts, so it makes logistical sense to load that position. The other part is talent. Roush is known for being a physically dominant blocker, but Dilfer thinks not enough people realize how good a pass-catcher he is. Stanford’s troubles masked that.
Sam Roush improved every year under rough conditions.
The past four years have been some of the most tumultuous in recent memory for Stanford as a program. Head coach David Shaw was gone after Roush’s freshman season in 2022. Troy Taylor took over the next season, won just six games in two years, and was fired. That brought in Frank Reich as the new head coach in 2025. Three head coaches and three different offenses in four years. That doesn’t account for the team’s persistent quarterback problems over that same time period.
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Despite this, Roush still finished 10th in all of Division I among tight ends with 545 yards. Just 15 yards behind 1st round pick Kenyon Sadiq, who played for a much better Oregon team. More interestingly, 415 of those yards came in the final seven games of the season. So he was really starting to rev things up down the stretch, and in an offensive system under a former NFL head coach. Maybe Dilfer has a point. Pro teams did a poor job in their evaluation process by assuming he’s just a blocker.
There is no doubt Ben Johnson recognized this.
If there’s one position that the Bears head coach is a savant with, it’s tight ends. He spearheaded the drafting of Sam LaPorta in Detroit and Loveland last year. His eye for the position is outstanding. If he pressed the Bears to take Sam Roush that early, it was because he saw something. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Before rising to the forefront as an offensive coordinator, Johnson spent much of his formative years in the NFL as a tight ends coach, both in Miami and Detroit. Of course, he’d know what good players are supposed to look like there.
Presuming Dilfer is correct, the implications of this are astounding. Most teams have the usual tight end makeup. That is one who can catch passes and is an okay blocker and one who can block and is an okay pass-catcher. Then you have the third tight end, who is strictly a blocker. The Bears? They may now have three tight ends who are both good blockers and good pass-catchers. That is unheard of. One can only imagine the diabolical plays Johnson might be cooking up with this knowledge in hand.
