If there’s one thing we know about Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles, it’s that he is a fan of homegrown talent. More than once, he’s moved to add players with local ties to the organization. Linebackers Jack Sanborn and T.J. Edwards are two such examples. He also made sure to retain Cole Kmet. Poles is a fan of such stories, especially when the players are capable. It appears the Bears GM is sniffing around a similar story ahead of the 2026 NFL draft. This one involves one of the team’s brightest seasons.

It isn’t a secret that the Bears are hunting for help at center. They’ve been scouting and visiting with multiple potential options in this class. The most recent addition to that list is James Brockermeyer. He was the middle man of Miami’s offensive line as they battled their way to the national championship game last season. His profile was further elevated after a strong showing at the Senior Bowl. While the young man stands on his own merits, it helps that his father played 136 games in the NFL.

That man is former left tackle Blake Brockermeyer.

Ryan Poles likely knows his history in Chicago.

Brockermeyer was the second-ever 1st-round pick in Carolina Panthers history in 1995, becoming their starting left tackle for four seasons and helping them reach the NFC Championship in 1996. That success led him to sign a free-agent deal with the Bears in 1999. From there, he helped them produce the #3 passing attack in the NFL that season. Two years later, he was a key part of Chicago’s miracle run in 2001, going 13-3 and helping running back Anthony Thomas win Offensive Rookie of the Year.

It felt like the relationship should’ve lasted much longer. However, Brockermeyer later claimed that Bears doctors misdiagnosed a shoulder injury in December of that season, failing to realize he risked permanent damage if he kept playing. Brockermeyer never started another season because of that and retired at just 31 years old. He sued the Bears over that. So you can understand why his contributions aren’t mentioned much despite his obvious impact on their early 2000s turnaround.

The younger Brockermeyer has traits the Bears like.

We’ve learned two things from head coach Ben Johnson over the past year. He wants his centers to be athletic and intelligent. Brockermeyer is both. He has the athleticism and quickness to block well in space and be a good option on pulls. Unsurprisingly, as the son of a former NFL offensive lineman, he is highly polished in technique and fundamentals. This helps Brockermeyer a lot in pass protection, doing really well against power despite his smaller 6’3″, 297 lbs frame. The intelligence is obvious as he’s rarely caught off guard by twists, stunts, or blitzes.

The primary issue with Brockermeyer is his lack of versatility. He is a pure center. This isn’t someone who can kick outside to guard. This will limit how high he goes in the draft, meaning Ryan Poles can probably get him somewhere in the 5th to 7th rounds. It will depend on whether the Bears can live with him being a one-position player. They certainly will know that he is trustworthy, much like his father was, though it might be interesting to hear what Blake thinks of his son possibly joining this organization.

The Chicago Bears have enough challenges to sort through before next season. Multiple key defensive players left in free agency or were cut. D.J. Moore was traded on offense. Center Drew Dalman retired and they still haven’t truly settled their left tackle situation. Head coach Ben Johnson is good at what he does, but even he doesn’t have all the answers. The last thing he and the Bears need is for the NFL to make the situation even more complicated. The league already screwed them over on the compensatory pick situation with Ian Cunningham. Now it’s about to get worse.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the NFL and the referees’ union have reached an impasse on negotiations over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The two sides are said to be miles apart, and time is running out. The current CBA expires on May 31st. Most people inside the league can’t imagine a deal coming together in time to avoid a lockout. As a result, higher-ups in the NFL have begun the process of hiring replacement officials, marking the second time this has happened since 2012.

NFL owners are “alarmed” by the state of negotiations with the NFL Referees Association and have authorized staff members to begin hiring and onboarding replacement officials in the coming weeks, league sources said Sunday at the start of the league meetings.

The NFL began compiling a list of college-level officials to recruit earlier this month, and owners are expected this week to approve a sweeping set of replay enhancements to support replacement officials in preseason and regular-season games. A separate league source said that training of the new replacement officials will begin May 1.

Life is about to get much tougher for Ben Johnson.

Anybody who was around 14 years ago when the replacement refs were inserted into the league will have PTSD. It was an absolute fiasco. Guys clearly didn’t fully understand their responsibilities. Clock management was atrocious. Refs spent way too long reviewing plays and reaching a decision. They didn’t understand the rules, were accused of being biased towards certain teams, and egregiously missed calls that cost teams games. Everybody remembers the infamous “Fail Mary” between the Seahawks and Packers.

Officials already miss basic plays way too often as it is, and these guys are experienced veterans. You honestly expect new officials to come in, get a crash course on the rulebook in just a few months, and be ready to go for the 2026 season? The NFL is kidding itself. It might not be as bad as it was in 2012, but it’s still going to be ugly. Johnson will have to put in extra time getting players ready for the inevitable screwups that will come. He can’t afford to have guys lose their composure because of an obviously awful call.

The Bears must work to keep guys disciplined.

There is a strong probability that replacement refs will have an itchier trigger finger on penalties. That puts added pressure on players to avoid sloppy mistakes, which was a common issue for the Bears last season. Ben Johnson has made it his mission to clean up those things, but the margin for error will be much thinner this time. The last time the referees and the NFL finally reached an agreement on a new CBA was late September. That means the Bears are probably looking at least a month of replacement refs.

Not ideal. It could last longer if the NFLRA continues to dig its heels in on certain key issues. While that is their right, the fact remains that it will hurt the NFL product. All the Bears can do is hope it doesn’t screw them out of some crucial games. They already have what looks to be one of the toughest schedules on paper, not counting the division. Having to battle against the refs on top of that makes getting back to the playoffs so much harder.

The Chicago Bears’ plan at left tackle, at least for the moment, appears clear. They liked what they saw from Ozzy Trapilo last season. Unfortunately, that knee injury suffered in the playoffs has stunted his progress. He likely won’t return until late next season at the earliest. This meant Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson had to find alternatives they could live with until that time comes. Their solution was re-signing veteran Braxton Jones, the team’s starter from 2022 through 2024. Then, in a somewhat surprising move, they added former 1st round pick Jedrick Wills.

This was an interesting move. The former 10th overall pick of the Cleveland Browns arrived from mighty Alabama in 2020. His career seemed to start off well those first two seasons, but injuries began to hit, and his play took a nosedive. Eventually, he chose to step away from football, undergoing extensive surgery to have his lower body structure realigned. This cost him the entire 2025 season. Some wonder what player the Bears are getting at this point. Zack Pearson of Bear Report spoke with Jake Burns of Browns Film Breakdown about what happened.

The comments weren’t exactly encouraging.

“And then something happened. Like he…the belief I think as time wore on is that he stopped loving the game. There was an element of, like, he doesn’t work hard. The thing that drove me the most crazy is this guy was clearly very talented, but he never finished plays. He was a big-time turns-and-look guy (who) didn’t finish plays…

…It felt like, if I put a perfect bow on the Jed Wills experience, it felt like, over time, he just stopped caring about getting better. And when he stopped caring about getting better, it led to more injuries, which I think were a direct result of training prep. I don’t think he was doing enough to get ready. And then I ultimately think it made him a worse player. He started to lose confidence.”

Jedrick Wills’ problem was never ability.

Like many Alabama tackles in the past, he has loads of talent. Nick Saban had a terrific eye for the position. The problem is, he also didn’t seem to identify guys who had the mental toughness to handle the NFL. Five of the past seven tackles taken in the 1st round out of Alabama have been flops. That includes Wills. The overarching issue for many of them is an inability to handle the speed and complexity of the pro level. That seems crazy to think, given the level of coaching they received in college, not to mention the competition they faced.

Getting a player to care about football is almost impossible. That is one of those things you’re sort of born with. If it’s evident they’ve lost their confidence and don’t love the game anymore, there is no getting back. It doesn’t matter how good the head coach is. Jimmy Johnson didn’t even bother. He simply cut guys if he got that sense from them. The Bears seem willing to see if passion was really the issue for Jedrick Wills or if the health problems were the root cause.

This revelation changes things.

It suggests the Bears might not be as serious about Wills as an option for starting at left tackle. They will certainly allow him to compete. However, these stories, along with the contract they gave him, suggest they see him more as a camp body who could serve as a swing tackle. Don’t forget, Wills made his name in college as a right tackle. It was his natural position before Cleveland shifted him to the left side. That might be his most optimistic outcome, and it explains why the Bears are paying close attention to left tackle options in the draft.

They’ve already been spotted looking into Kadyn Proctor of Alabama and Max Iheanachor of Arizona State. It’s a safe bet they’re looking at others as well. This signals their confidence in Wills and Jones isn’t nearly as high as one might think. In all fairness, it shouldn’t be. Neither player has done enough over the past two years to justify confidence that they can hold down the fort. Maybe they change that in training camp, but this isn’t a regime that likes relying on hope to get them through.

For months since the season ended, experts have agreed that the Chicago Bears should be focused on edge rushers. Montez Sweat is entering his 30s. Austin Bookers is still an unknown quantity. Dominique Robinson and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka are both gone. They need another body. The Bears haven’t taken an edge rusher in the 1st round for ten years. It feels long overdue. However, given how the team has operated thus far, it doesn’t feel like edge rusher is a clear priority. They’ve been looking at multiple position groups, including left tackle.

One could take this to mean the team isn’t overly enthusiastic about its likely options at the 25th pick. The last thing they want to do is reach at a position of need when the pool has already been picked clean. After all, we saw them operate that way last year. They pivoted to tight end after the left tackles were pillaged. Then they continually had to avoid taking a running back because other teams kept getting there first. There is also the fact that they feel the depth of this edge class will allow them to grab somebody later. Former Jets and Dolphins general manager Mike Tannenbaum illustrated this with a recent comment on ESPN.com.

The players I’d be targeting in Round 3

Malachi Lawrence, Edge, UCF

A four-year player at UCF, Lawrence has a really good motor and posted solid production with 20 career sacks. Plus, he had a fantastic workout in Indianapolis, running a 4.52-second 40-yard dash at 6-foot-4 and 253 pounds. Anytime I can add a productive, high-motor pass rusher with production, I’m in.

The Chicago Bears’ options later on could be pretty good.

Malachi Lawrence is quietly one of the better pass rushers in this class. He isn’t getting as much attention as he probably should. That might be because he plays at UCF and also doesn’t have a strong reputation as a run defender. Whatever the reason, Tannenbaum believes he could fall to the 3rd round. That is great news for the Bears, as they have two 2nd-round picks. If they planned to, say, reserve one for an edge rusher, there is a strong possibility they could land Lawrence with one of them.

It also means there is a reasonable chance that the edge options in the 2nd round might be better than people are letting on. Perhaps the gulf between someone selected 25th overall in this class and someone picked 60th isn’t as large as we think. Experts have insisted for several weeks that this edge rusher class is one of the deepest in the draft. If the Bears were comfortable with waiting to address any position on their roster until the second day, this would be the safest one to gamble on.

The Bears will not be slaves to needs.

That is the message they’ve conveyed for over a year now. Coach Johnson said his primary goal is to draft good football players. He doesn’t care what position they play. Just get the best talent possible onto the roster, and the coaches will figure the rest out later. That is what he gets paid for. Nobody saw them going tight end and wide receiver with their first two picks last year. It would be wise not to assume edge rusher is the obvious outcome with that 25th overall pick next month.

Current projections have as many as five pass rushers going into the 24 picks ahead of the Chicago Bears. As deep as the position is, it’s hard to imagine the sixth option at edge would be better than maybe the second, third, or fourth option at other positions. Poles is keep all the possibilities on the table for this team. The Bears will select an edge rusher at some point. It’s almost guaranteed. The key will be when the board allows them to do so. Not before.

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles got some headlines this past week with his stops on the scouting trail. He popped up at the Alabama and Arizona State pro days. Most immediately drew the conclusion that Poles was getting a close look at two of the top offensive tackles in the class, Kadyn Proctor and Max Iheanachor. It isn’t a secret that the Bears have a vacancy at left tackle after Ozzy Trapilo injured his knee in the playoffs last season. He’s expected to miss most, if not all, of 2026.

That puts the team in a tough spot. While they would love to wait for the former 2nd round pick, there is no telling what player they’ll be getting back when he returns. Patellar tendon injuries are notoriously brutal. If Poles and head coach Ben Johnson aren’t sure about Trapilo’s prospects, then taking a tackle in the 1st round makes sense. The obvious question is who do they choose when the Bears go on the clock next month? If you listen to NFL scouts around the league, they’ll tell you one thing.

Not Proctor.

Kadyn Proctor has plenty of skeptics.

Bob McGinn of Go Long does an outstanding series every year covering every position group ahead of the draft, collecting comments from NFL scouts and getting their thoughts on the most exciting names. The offensive tackles column was released over the weekend. Proctor landed 4th on the list thanks to his mix of immense size and considerable athleticism. However, the responses were far from universally glowing. More than a few scouts had some brutal critiques of the Alabama standout.

Scout #1

“Light on his feet. He can bend. He can move people. He can anchor. Talent-wise, there’s no question who this kid is. But he has had weight issues over his career. The intelligence is not great. At the end of the day, O-linemen that are big, smart and tough are the guys that play. The guys that are super talented and maybe not that smart and have weight issues and the work ethic doesn’t match to the talent are the ones you worry about. He’s how you want to draw them up physically but it gives you a little pause with who he is.”

Scout #2

“Big, massive athlete,” said a third scout. “You cannot deny the physical ability but just a lot of hype, a lot of recognition early on. He’s going to go probably in the 20’s but it’s embarrassing. He should be in the top five, top six. He’s more athletic than my top two guys (Fano, Mauigoa) but the top two guys produce consistently. He didn’t. Will he play? Yes. Are you going to be satisfied with him? Probably not. Alabama never really was.”

Scout #3

“He’s overrated,” a fourth scout said. “Slow feet. Kind of an oozer. Slow twitch, not a good athlete for pass protection. He’s got to be a right tackle or a guard. But he’s a massive guy and sometimes that’s all you need, especially at guard.”

Yikes. It is pretty clear that Kadyn Proctor didn’t do enough to convince people with trained eyes that he is a franchise left tackle in waiting. For all that size, power, and mobility, he had stretches where he looked either overmatched or disinterested. That isn’t the type of player teams want to spend their 1st round pick on. At the same time, his talent is so unique that somebody will be willing to gamble that they can coach him up better than the staff at Alabama could.

History isn’t on his side either.

Since 2009, Alabama has seen five offensive tackles get drafted in the 1st round. Two of them, Andre Smith and JC Latham, became solid starters. The other three have proven to be massive disappointments: Alex Leatherwood, Jedrick Wills, and Evan Neal. That doesn’t include two other flops, D.J. Fluker and James Carpenter, who ended up moving inside to guard. The point is that Alabama tackles have not transitioned well to the NFL over the past several years, despite significant talent.

The reasons for this vary. Some suffered injury setbacks. Others landed in tough situations. Then there are those who just didn’t have the drive. That is the same concern being raised with Proctor. He has all the talent in the world. Yet when you watch him, you don’t always see someone giving 100%. It is easy to see why Poles is interested. He loves tackles with size and athleticism. Still, it’s hard to imagine somebody with that reputation sneaking past Ben Johnson and Dan Roushar.