Ryan Poles, Ben Johnson Vindicated in One Aspect of Bears' Zavion Thomas Pick

As it turns out, the Chicago Bears' 2026 NFL Draft selection of LSU wide receiver Zavion Thomas may not have been a reach as many believed.

Louisiana State University wide receiver Zavion Thomas. | Nicole Hester/ The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Chicago Bears' selection of LSU wide receiver Zavion Thomas in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft was met with controversy, and for multiple reasons.

One of those reasons was the perception that drafting Thomas on Day 2 was a reach, as some experts had the speedy wide receiver projected as a Day 3 selection, with Lance Zierlein of NFL.com going as far as to say Thomas was a sixth-rounder.

But, as is often the case, the way the public and analysts views a draft prospect is not always how teams view them, and that appears to have been the case with Thomas.

ESPN's Field Yates was a guest on Waddle & Silvy on Monday and revealed that he received a call from a team that said Thomas would be a third-round pick — and it wasn't the Bears.

"Field [Yates] didn't have [Thomas] in his top 150," Waddle & Silvy said on X. "Someone called him and asked why. That person told him that Thomas would eventually be a third -round pick. And it wasn't from someone (with) the Bears."

Not out of the woods yet

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

While that covers one base, there are still others that need to be covered in order to fully justify this pick.

For starters, this doesn't erase the fact that the Bears needed to make a pick on defense in that spot, and especially at EDGE or interior defensive line. That was also the case with the other selections on Day 2, yet Chicago went with offense.

That part in and of itself is going to keep all three of those Day 2 picks under the microscope of those who didn't agree with them.

Then, there's the possibility that Thomas doesn't make much of an impact in Year 1. Even general manager Ryan Poles admitted that learning head coach Ben Johnson's offense might make it tough for Thomas to do so, at least early on.

"So this is a tough system. It’s going to be a challenge for him to break through quickly (on offense). But we’re going to open that competition up for all of these guys coming in," Poles said. "I think we feel really good about the return ability that he has. And then he’ll be with the rest of the guys to learn the offense, how does he do that, how fast does he come along? We all talk to our receivers and it’s a challenging system.

"So, maybe that role starts small and grows over time. But I don’t want to put a cap on that. If he comes in and downloads fast and he’s up and running, we’ll see what happens."

The problem with all that is the Bears are in an OK but not great spot at wide receiver.

The jury is still out on both Rome Odunze and Luther Burden, both of whom have a relatively small sample size, and that's especially true with Burden.

There's also Kalif Raymond, who hasn't produced a ton the past two years, and Jahdae Walker, who will battle it out with Raymond for the WR3 role and will likely settle in as WR4 but has just nine games, 10 catches and 87 yards under his belt.

Knowing that, the Bears could've used a receiver who was a more sure thing to make an immediate impact. The best bet would've been to sign another veteran.

As is the case with all draft picks, only time will tell if Poles and Johnson were really vindicated, but they're at least off the hook with one aspect of drafting Thomas.