Even if you didn’t follow the Chicago Bears‘ 2026 NFL draft closely, you still probably heard a lot of the grumbling from fans and media about their approach to it. Most agree that the defense needed to be the focus of the action, especially up front. The Bears were one of the league’s worst last season at pressuring the quarterback and stopping the run. They had to find fresh bodies to help solve the problem. So you can imagine the reaction when they didn’t take a defensive tackle until the 6th round and didn’t take an edge rusher at all.
People couldn’t understand it. The Bears had four picks in the first three rounds and spent three of them on offense. The one that wasn’t was a safety. General manager Ryan Poles spoke after the draft and explained what happened. From his perspective, the board just didn’t cooperate. No defensive linemen available when the Bears were on the clock had the same grades as the players they ended up drafting. His goal was to take the best players possible, even if that meant failing to address a need.
Yet even as the criticism persisted after the draft, future Hall of Fame general manager Howie Roseman had a comment that instantly put things into perspective.
The Chicago Bears should know all about Roseman’s process.
After all, former assistant GM Ian Cunningham spent years learning under the Philadelphia Eagles’ leading man. You’ll often see throughout his long tenure as a GM that he didn’t always chase needs in the draft, opting instead to take players of value. It has certainly served the Eagles well, who’ve reached three Super Bowls and won two since 2017. Conversely, there was a time when the Bears chased needs almost ever year. Just look at how former GM Ryan Pace operated.
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Here was the list of top Bears needs going into the 2015 draft, according to NFL.com.
- WR
- NT
- OL
- S
- EDGE
Here is what they ended up with from that draft.
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | College |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | Kevin White | WR | West Virginia |
| 2 | 39 | Eddie Goldman | DT | Florida State |
| 3 | 71 | Hroniss Grasu | C | Oregon |
| 4 | 106 | Jeremy Langford | RB | Michigan State |
| 5 | 142 | Adrian Amos | S | Penn State |
| 6 | 183 | Tayo Fabuluje | OT | TCU |
White was an injury-prone bust. Goldman started out well but fell off after a few years. Grasu got hurt immediately. Amos turned out well, but Fabuluje never played a down for the Bears. So what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been so married to need?
- Round 1 – Todd Gurley, RB, Georgia (taken 3 picks later)
- Round 2 – Eric Kendricks, ILB, UCLA (taken 6 picks later)
- Round 3 – Danielle Hunter, EDGE, LSU (taken 17 picks later)
- Round 4 – Shaq Mason, C, Georgia Tech (taken 25 picks later)
- Round 5 – Adrian Amos, S, Penn State
- Round 6 – Quandre Diggs, DB, Texas (taken 17 picks later)
Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but this is what the Bears’ draft could’ve looked like if they hadn’t been married to addressing needs. Gurley was a far more proven prospect than White. Kendricks would’ve been a way better linebacker option than Shea McClellin or Christian Jones. You get the edge rusher this time and still land a quality center in the 4th. Then you walk it off with two excellent secondary additions.
The point is, there is no such thing as no weaknesses.
Every single team has weaknesses, even the eventual champions. People talk about how great the 1985 Chicago Bears were. They forget that the team ranked 20th in passing offense in the NFL. It just didn’t matter because they had a dominant run game and an all-time great defense. This was because they wisely focused on adding great players rather than needs. Remember, they took linebacker Otis Wilson in the 1st round in 1981. A year later, despite having more pressing spots to address, they still took Mike Singletary in the 2nd round.
That is what this new Bears regime is trying to do. They aim to gather the largest possible concentration of talent. If it happens to be at tight end or cornerback rather than defensive tackle or running back? So be it. You can work around such problems when the roster has enough top-tier talent. The Eagles won their two Super Bowls with two quarterbacks who nobody will be seeing in the Hall of Fame. Their running backs were never elite, nor were their linebackers. Roseman was just so effective at stacking other positions that it masked everywhere else.
