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Bears Go Local for Third-Round Pick and for More Offense
Kiran Amegadjie from Hinsdale Central High School and Yale was the Bears' pick at No. 75 as the decided on more offense.
Last summer Kiran Amegadjie was at a golf club where his father belongs and walked up to Bears coach Matt Eberflus, who was there as a guest.
He introduced himself and Eberflus he would be playing for the Bears someday soon.
He will be, much to the shock of those who thought the Bears would zero in on defense in Round 3 of the draft.
So much for defense, and Braxton Jones might want to start sharpening his all-around blocking skills.
The Bears at No. 75 in Round 3 threw everyone off by drafting Amegadjie, the former Hinsdale Central tackle who played for Yale.
The need for defense was great but GM Ryan Poles decided on another offensive lineman who was a left tackle but also played at guard. That's three straight offensive players in this draft in case anyone is counting. No defense.
The Bears and Amegadjie almost seemed fated to be together. Besides the Eberflus meeting, Amegadjie had a chance encounter originally to get on the personnel department's radar.
"Actually my first interaction with the Bears was at the Chili's in Terminal 1 of Chicago O’Hare Airport, with Tom Bradway, the (Bears) scout," Amegadjie said. "I missed my gate. I was walking back to my actual gate and he stopped me.
"That was my first interaction with the Bears. Took a visit. They came and saw me at school a couple times. I got the call. And everybody is just congratulating me on staying home. Ready to go get to work."
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Amegadjie's 36 1/2-inch arms are his calling card as the 6-foot-5 3/8, 323-pounder is able to reach out and get his hands on edge rushers easier than most tackles. His arm length is top 5% of all players to go to combines for his position, and his wingspan if 85 1/2 inches is top 6%.
"I think No. 1 is length and then you got athleticism and power," Amegadjie said. "Those are kind of my superpowers I feel like on the field."
His goal is to sharpen all of this
"I think I want to marry up my nastiness, my physicality, my toughness and be more of a complete player," he said.
He was a basketball player through his sophomore season at Hinsdale Central.
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"Some of the movements translate even though they're not the same," he said of playing tackle.
Amegadjie was with a large group of 25 to 30 Yale teammates and what he estimated was 60 to 70 family members celebrating the announcement at Salt Creek Golf Club near his house.
"It's been an amazing night," he said. "At first, when the phone rang everyone was going crazy so I couldn't really hear at first then everybody quieted down a little bit. When I got off the phone, it kind of erupted."
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Amegadjie was born in the U.S. His father is from Togo and mother from Cameroon.
He had a local visit to Halas Hall prior to the draft and got to know offensive line coach Chris Morgan then.
"Yeah, I mean coach Morgan and I had an amazing conversation when I came in on a visit," Amegadjie said. "We basically put it all on the line what we both want from each other. And that's the absolute best, that's hard work, it's effort, nothing short of excellence. I'm excited for the journey I'm about to take with him and I'm excited to get to work there."
Of course, playing at Yale his level of competition was not the highest.
They'll also be getting him on the field after an injury. He tore a quad muscle last season but is fully healed. It limited his 2023 season to only four games.
Trey Koziol, director of player personnel, said the medical tests all checked out for his return this year.
Now the question is where he'll play. Will he challenge Jones at left tackle, or maybe try to play guard?
"Our goal as an organization is just to acquire as much talent as we can and then let the competition play out however that may be during training camp," Koziol said. "I do think that he's got starter potential, and however that competition plays out, we're thrilled with our two young tackles right now and adding competition to the room is only going to help the Bears."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
