ESPN NFL analyst completely blows off the Chicago Bears' 2025 rookie class

Football pundits all across the interwebs gave solid grades to the Chicago Bears’ 2025 draftees:

Bears Wire’s Alyssa Barbieri: B+

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.: B+

NFL.com’s Chad Reuter: B+

PFF Staff: B+

Which is why it came as a surprise that one of ESPN’s top NFL minds ignored Chicago’s draft class entirely.

Project This

In his in-depth article prognosticating which 2025 rookies will blow up NFL box scores this coming season, ESPN’s Mike Clay touted the Bears as, well, he didn’t tout the Bears at all.

Not a single Midway Monster was included in his list of potential leaders in passing yards and touchdowns, receiving yards and touchdowns, rushing yards and touchdowns, touchdowns from scrimmage, tackles, sacks, or interceptions.

On one hand, what a jerk. But on the other hand, he might be right.

Spreading the Wealth

Upon first blush, one would think that Chicago first-round pick Colston Loveland would’ve been a logical candidate for inclusion in the receiving yards and touchdowns section of Clay’s program. Thing is, the Bears have a ton of pass catching weapons at their disposal, so it’s possible that Clay’s research led him to believe that Loveland won’t have enough opportunity to make a huge statistical impact.

Can’t argue, really.

Same deal on the other side of the ball. Second-rounder Shemar Turner, for example, might be a beast, but sitting behind Gervon Dexter Sr. on the depth chart, it’s doubtful he’ll see enough snaps to even get a whiff of landing on the tackles list.

So as a group, the Chicago Bears 2025 rookie class will have plenty of positive impact. But individually, the numbers will have to wait.