The Bears hold the 25th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and the conventional move is to sit on it and take the best available player. On Monday’s BN Bears Podcast, Luis Medina, Matt Rooney, and I did exactly that first, and then we asked a more interesting question: should they?
We ran the simulation twice on PFF’s Mock Draft Simulator. The first time, we stayed put at 25 and worked through who might realistically be on the board.
Names like Ohio State defensive interior Kayden McDonald, Clemson’s Peter Woods, and Alabama left tackle Kadyn Proctor came up as realistic options. We landed on McDonald, and it wasn’t a difficult conversation. His run-stopping ability on early downs is exactly the kind of thing the Bears lacked last season, and he’s a player all three of us came away liking. If Chicago is on the clock at 25 and McDonald is there, that’s a defensible pick.
But then we traded back. And honestly? The second simulation made a pretty compelling case that more capital is the right call here.
Here’s how it unfolded.
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesWhy Trading Back From No. 25 Makes a Lot of Sense for the Bears in This Draft
We moved from No. 25 to No. 30 with the Miami Dolphins, who sent back their own 30th pick, a third-rounder (No. 94), a fifth-rounder (No. 151), and a 2027 fourth. Miami acquired No. 30 and No. 94 from Denver in the Jaylen Waddle trade, and in this scenario, they turned that return into wide receiver Denzel Boston out of Washington.
We then flipped No. 30 to the New York Jets, sliding back three more spots to No. 33 in exchange for New York’s fourth-rounder this year (No. 103) and another 2027 fourth. The simulation had the Jets taking Clemson’s Peter Woods at No. 30.
By the time the dust settled, Chicago had turned one pick at No. 25 into six selections in the top 103, plus two 2027 fourth-rounders:
Round 2, Pick 23 (via MIA):* Kadyn Proctor, LT, Alabama Round 2, Pick 57: Treydan Stukes, DB, Arizona Round 2, Pick 60 (via BUF): Dani Dennis-Sutton, ED, Penn State Round 3, Pick 89: Sam Hecht, C, Kansas State Round 3, Pick 94 (via MIA):* Jonah Coleman, RB, Washington Round 4, Pick 103 (via NYJ):* Kaleb Johnson, DI, Southeastern Louisiana*=Picks acquired in mock simulation exercise.
Jeff Blake-Imagn ImagesThe picks themselves aren’t really the point, though. That’s the bigger takeaway from this exercise. This draft class, outside of the marquee names at the very top, is widely regarded as one of the more interchangeable groups in recent memory once you get into the back third of Round 1 and into Rounds 2 and 3. The talent is there, but it’s spread thin and bunched together in a way that makes the difference between picking 25th and 35th a lot smaller than it would be in a stronger class. That’s exactly the environment where accumulating picks makes more sense than protecting your spot.
The strategy we leaned on mirrors what Head Coach Ben Johnson and General Manager Ryan Poles did so effectively last year. They let the board come to them, took the best player available at each spot, and dealt with positional fit as a secondary consideration. What’s notable is that even with that approach, the added volume allowed us to check a lot of boxes. A tackle, an edge rusher, a center, a running back, a defensive interior lineman — the needs didn’t go unaddressed, they just got addressed with more ammunition.
The 2027 fourth-rounders are worth flagging specifically. We came away from this believing next year’s class is going to be meaningfully stronger, which makes 2027 capital genuinely valuable. And if those picks never turn into selections, if they get packaged in a trade before next April, that’s fine too. Picks are currency, and the Bears are at a point in their build where flexibility matters.
Good teams draft three or four future starters every year on rookie deals. That’s the goal, and that should be the measuring stick. More swings give you a better shot at hitting that number. In this particular class, with this particular pick, trading back feels like the right call.
You can watch the exercise play out in its entirety in the latest episode of the BN Bears Podcast (or listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts):
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