Mel Kiper Jr's First Mock Draft Gets It Right For The Bears

The 2025 NFL Draft was an offensive-minded show for the Chicago Bears. This year promises to be a bit different.

By and large, the draft couldn’t have worked out much better for Chicago, especially on the offensive side of the football. All of their first three picks—Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III, and Ozzy Trapilo—turned out to be hits, and all would be on their way to big years in 2026 had Trapilo not suffered a devastating patellar tendon injury against Green Bay in the playoffs.

With that side of the ball largely set, thanks to Caleb Williams, a revamped offensive line, and a receiving corps that should be stronger in 2026 thanks to Loveland’s and Burden’s ascensions, there isn’t much left to do there except collect depth.

The defense is another story.

Though they led the league in takeaways, they’re not very good. To make matters worse, they’re old, hurt, and expensive.

But while positions like defensive end and safety get most of the headlines because they need improvement or simply need bodies—every safety is heading to free agency at the current moment—I’d posit the biggest position of need is much more fundamental: defensive tackle.

We can talk about the lack of pass rush and consistent disruptive impact from Montez Sweat, Austin Booker, and Dayo Odeyingbo ’til the cows come home (justifiably so). But the more glaring problem with this defensive unit was that they routinely got dominated up front on early downs, especially up the middle. On top of that, they also are lacking good depth, which wasn’t helped by second-round rookie Shemar Turner tearing his ACL and having his status up in the air next year.

If Dennis Allen’s 4-3 defense is to work, they need better from their defensive tackles next year. What’s why ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has the Bears taking a swing on Ohio State enforcer Kayden McDonald with the 25th overall pick in his first mock draft of the offseason.

“The Bears are in "best player available" territory [at No. 25),” Kiper wrote of his process. “Edge rusher would obviously be a target, but once Akheem Mesidor went off the board at No. 20, the value disappeared at the position. Maybe Texas A&M's Cashius Howell? But why not kick inside and address the interior? Gervon Dexter Sr. is entering a contract year, Grady Jarrett will be turning 33 and most of the depth behind those two -- namely Andrew Billings and Chris Williams -- is headed toward the open market.

“McDonald had a huge breakout season, showcasing power and quickness with 67 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. And considering Chicago was gashed for 5.0 yards per carry this season, it could use a solid 326-pound presence up the middle.”

It might not be as sexy of a pick as people want in the first round, but you have to be realistic about where you are in this draft. Making the Divisional Round means you get stuck in the back end of the first round—a place you want to be, by the way. That means the blue-chip prospects at the most premium positions, like edge, are gone by then. You could trade back and stock-pile a few more bites at the apple if you want, of course. But there’s also another option: taking one of the best players at another position of need.

McDonald fits that bill perfectly.

He’s quite literally the best run-stopping defensive interior player in the country, which immediately makes the Bears’ defense that much better. He doesn’t do much in the pass-rush department, unfortunately. But that’s less important when you can take him off the field and have someone else rush in his place on 3rd-and-long after he’s blown things up on first and second down. Plus, his athletic profile, particularly his first-step quickness and massive size, suggests he can get better at it as his career goes on, especially with NFL coaching.

Normally, you might eschew the idea of taking a defensive tackle here as opposed simply signing a competent veteran and beefing up more “important” positions. That said, you saw what it looked like for the Bears this year trying to stop the run, and how much the lack of interior dominance put their linebackers in a bind.

The Bears absolutely must add a beast inside for this defense to work, especially if they can do so while getting younger. We’ve seen teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, one of the best drafting teams in the league, spam interior defensive linemen until they had built a juggernaut at the line of scrimmage, and the Bears will need to learn how to do that, especially once they have to start paying Caleb Williams a quarter of a billion dollars.

Why not get the party started by getting this defense’s equivalent of Philly’s Jordan Davis right here with McDonald, and watch this defense take off as a result?

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