Windy City Gridiron
In his final mock draft of the 2025 NFL Draft season, Aaron Leming takes his best swing at projecting what the Chicago Bears could do this weekend.
The 2025 NFL Draft week is finally here, and all 32 teams around the league will look to put the last big impactful touch on their roster before a long three-month layoff before the start of training camp. It’s been a busy offseason for the Chicago Bears from the start. After embarking on almost a month-long journey to replace Matt Eberflus, the roster transformation process has been in full swing since a week before free agency.
With five impact starters added and some additional depth in the mix, their projected seven-man draft class will be the last big piece of their offseason puzzle. For the first time in recent memory, the Bears aren’t going into draft weekend with a laundry list of immediate needs. As general manager Ryan Poles noted, that should allow them to keep their board wide open as the picks unfold. There’s a renewed sense of energy at Halas Hall, and although the team was active in free agency, the draft is where sustained, long-term success is built. Can the Bears come out of draft weekend with a more complete roster? I’ll do my best to get there with my final mock of the 2025 NFL draft season.
I’ve gone back and forth on this first pick quite a bit. Simply put, the Bears are in a tough spot while they let the draft play out in front of them with the first nine picks. In an ideal world, one of the tackles or running back, Ashton Jeanty, falls to them at No. 10. More realistically, Jeanty or a top tackle doesn’t fall that far.
For full transparency, I would not support this trade. While I love Jeanty, the Bears are not one player away, and giving away a highly valuable pick like No. 41 in this type of class is a bad choice. Even so, I’m mocking what I believe could happen and not what I would do.
There’s no denying that Jeanty is a stud. In a draft class short on blue-chip players, the Boise State product is among the few that fit the bill. He’s a runner with outstanding vision and contract balance. He’s an advanced receiver with plenty of nuances to his route tree. He’s the most complete runner in this class, and I don’t think it’s all that close. This would be a massive weapon for the Bears’ offense, but it would come at a big price.
Alternate Selection: OT/OG Kelvin Banks Jr. (Texas)
2nd (#45) DE JT Tuimoloau (Ohio State)
The smartest thing the Bears can do for the rest of...
