Jordan van den Berg Was a Menace vs. Bengals and Looks Like a Major Steal for Bears

Yes, it's only two preseason games, but 2026 sixth-round pick and defensive lineman Jordan van den Berg looks to be on his way to becoming a huge steal for the Chicago Bears

The rookie kicked off his career last week with a strong showing against the Cleveland Browns, but he was just on a different level in preseason Week 2 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Pro Football Focus charted van den Berg with three tackles, two pressures and two run stops on Saturday night. The rookie posted the highest grade on defense for the Bears with a 90.9, and he finished with an 84.9 in run defense and 80.9 in the pass rush.

While his impressive numbers on the stat sheet were great to see, they can sometimes be misleading. However, van den Berg easily passed the eye test with flying colors, also.

Here we see van den Berg showing hist perfect Relative Athletic Score by jetting down the line of scrimmage to make what was almost (and maybe should have been) a tackle for loss.

The Bears have found something in rookie Jordan van den Berg. The sixth-round pick out of Georgia Tech has been disruptive in the preseason.

The South African is a freak athletically and you can see it translate to the field. Clocked a 1.61 10-yard split, 36” vert, 9’11” broad pic.twitter.com/3oParcxi11
— Bobby Football (@Rob__Paul) August 23, 2026

We didn't just see athleticism from van den Berg, though. We also saw his strength, as the Georgia Tech product was moving people at will throughout the contest.

You can see his athleticism shine with his explosive get-off, and he uses that to generate extra power when meeting a blocker. That allowed him to be the menace we saw as a pass-rusher and run defense on Saturday night.

Bear in mind, van den Berg had issues with his get-off earlier in the offseason, but it looks like he has vastly improved in that area already.

Everyone likes effort, right?

How about van den Berg doing a full dive at Bengals quarterback Sean Clifford, who had already crossed over into the sideline on a scramble.

Gotta appreciate the maximum effort from Jordan van den Berg here 😂 pic.twitter.com/SzXDoeiUaO
— Bearsszn (@bearszn) August 23, 2026

There wasn't a lot to love about the Bears' showing against the Bengals, but van den Berg was not part of the disappointment. The rook balled out in preseason Week 2, plain and simple.

Jordan van den Berg's 53-man roster outlook

It is no longer a question of if van den Berg will make the Bears' 53-man roster. He is officially locked-in after what we saw and Chicago doesn't need to play him another snap this preseason.

Now, we have to wonder just how big of a role he's going to have.

Chicago desperately needs a boost in the pass-rush and in run defense upfront after a season in which the team finished tied for the seventh-fewest sacks and posted the sixth-worst run defense and went on to not do much to improve either area this offseason.

The rookie has clearly shown he can impact the defense in both areas and that should give him regular looks in the rotation in defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's unit out of the gate.

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