Chicago Bears beat writer Brad Biggs brings a slightly negative reality to light with potential offensive line prospects in the 2025 draft
A major need for the Chicago Bears front office to address entering the offseason is the offensive line. Caleb Williams has been sacked a league-high 67 times this season, including the seven sacks that he took in Thursday night’s loss at Solider Field against Seattle.
Unfortunately for Chicago Bears’ fans, beat writer Brad Biggs hasn’t heard extremely positive news about this upcoming draft class of offensive linemen.
I talked with a longtime talent evaluator and a national scout on a variety of draft topics.
“It’s shaping up to be a better offensive-line class than we originally expected, but it’s still not what it was last year,” the front-office man said.“There’s not any real slam-dunk, top-half-of-the-first-round players. A lot of the top guys in this class on the line are Day 2-graded players. It’s a wide-open year overall in the first round. I bet there are a lot of teams that have 10 or less first-round grades right now. In an average year, you’re usually in the mid-teens, and in a good year you’re in the low to mid-20s. This is not a great draft at the top.
Those aren’t great words to hear for a team that should be locked into the top 10 of the first round. The Chicago Bears are in desperate need of a game-changer on the line to protect Williams entering his second season and if the front office can’t get that through the draft, they might be out of luck.
The talent evaluator that Biggs spoke to echoed the thought that there is still some talent both on the offensive line and away from it that can help a franchise in this upcoming draft. However, it won’t be the quality of a class that we have been accustomed to seeing over the last few years.
“The top half of the first round is not going to be the same as it’s been,” he said. “There’s still some quality talent that is worthy of being picked in Round 1. But I don’t think there are any elite players that really stand out this year. There’s no one that’s super fired up to be picking in the top five. You weren’t good this year and there’s no one that is going to be your savior.
You’re not looking at a generational player or someone that is going to come in immediately and make a noticeable difference. Obviously if you don’t have a quarterback and you get one that hits right away, that’s great. I’m not sure there’s that guy, either, in this class. It’s not a great year to be a bad team.”
Will Campbell of LSU and Kelvin Banks Jr. of Texas are two tackles that have been linked as top 10 picks in April. With the Chicago Bears in desperate need of either one of those prospects, the front office would be glad to select either one of them in the draft. However, landing them is not a given regardless of where they are positioned in the first round.
There will be pressure on the Chicago Bears front office if they can’t land one of Will Campbell or Kelvin Banks Jr.
If the Chicago Bears don’t end up with Campbell or Banks Jr, Tyler Booker of Alabama is an easy prospect for Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren to keep their eyes on. Booker plays on the inside which is not a problem for the organization whatsoever.
The rumored idea of the Chicago Bears drafting a tackle is that they would either move the draft pick to guard or Braxton Jones there. Therefore, drafting Booker would just mean Jones remains set at left tackle for next year.
Whether this crop of offensive line prospects was going to be stellar or not, the Chicago Bears need to attack the scouting process with full force. It is up to the front office to make the most of what is at their finger tips with this draft to help Williams succeed in year two. The franchise should possess three picks in the top 40 if all goes according to plan.
Ryan Poles can’t be trusted with the plethora of offseason resources the Chicago Bears have
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