The Chicago Bears brought in a multitude of NFL Draft prospects for private workouts at Halas Hall for the 2023 NFL Draft. Here we’re going to break down the players the Bears scouted.
The Chicago Bears brought in 35 total known prospects to work out at Halas Hall for the 2023 NFL Draft. Some prospects counted towards the local Chicagoland Midwest region players so they didn’t count against the 30 limit total.
Offensive tackles are one of the top priorities in the 2023 NFL Draft for the Chicago Bears. The Bears wasted no time in scouting the top players at the offensive tackle position.
Offensive tackles
OT Paris Johnson Jr., Ohio State
Five players who project as offensive tackles and three of the consensus top-5 offensive tackles in the upcoming NFL Draft in Paris Johnson Jr. Broderick Jones and Darnell Wright.
Interior offensive line prospects
The majority of the prospects listed above are late-round prospects that grade from the sixth round to UDFA prospects. Some weren’t invited to the NFL Combine so the Chicago Bears wanted to get a closer look at guys that they could target in developmental roles behind starters Nate Davis at right guard, Tevin Jenkins at left guard and Cody Whitehair at center. 12 of the 35 players the Chicago Bears did extra work on are offensive line prospects. This makes it clear that the focus for Ryan Poles and Ian Cunningham is building up the talent and the depth along the offensive line.
Wide receivers
WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ohio State
WR Jayden Reed, Michigan State
Six wide receivers were brought in on Top-30 visits to Halas Hall and only one of those players is listed among the Top-10 NFL Draft prospects according to ProFootballFocus. Jaxon Smith-Njigba from Ohio State is the only player highly regarded enough to be considered a possible day-one pick or early day-two selection. It’s possible then that with the wide receivers, the Bears have on hand they don’t see the position as a priority in the upcoming draft.
Defensive tackles
DL Adetomiwa Adebawore, Northwestern
The overall defensive tackle depth in this draft is pretty slim. If this is the draft the Bears need to find a starter and develop depth they better hope Jalen Carter falls to them. The likelihood that a Top-5 prospect slides all the way to nine is pretty slim. The Seahawks, Lions and Raiders seem like logical places for Carter. That leaves players the Chicago Bears can draft from this list that might develop into back up rotational players. It doesn’t matter really, the Chicago Bears need talent and depth because what they had last year wasn’t much better than what’s in the draft.
Defensive End/Edge rusher
EDGE Karl Brooks, Bowling Green
The depth at the defensive end position is greater than probably any other position on the draft. As such the Bears can probably find a good player on day two of the NFL Draft. Tyree Wilson makes sense at nine if the Bears feel like they need to upgrade their DE position which they really didn’t do in free agency. They did their due diligence on Nolan Smith but he’s an extremely under-sized tweener DE who more appropriately should play the OLB in a 3-4 defense. Derick Hall could be a steal in the second round if he’s there when the Bears pick. Hall is an ideal Matt Eberflus player.
The Rest
In this last group of players there are two productive running backs from the Pac-12. Zach Charbonnet and Xazavian Valladay both produced well for their respective programs. Valladay is a local Chicago kid who played at Brother Rice before signing with the Wyoming Cowboys. He had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and then transferred to Arizona State where he led the Pac-12 in TDs and racked up yet another 1,000 yard season. If the Chicago Bears decide to draft a runningback they would be well to consider one of those two.
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