Why the Jordan van den Berg Pick Earned an 'A,' and It's Not Just the 10.0 RAS Score

Adding incredible athletes this late in the NFL draft is always a good idea, and the Bears just found a rare one.

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Before today, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles had traded up in the NFL draft just one time, and that was for Tyrique Stevenson in 2023. But Poles has now traded up not once but twice in the 2026 NFL draft. First, he moved up in the fourth round for cornerback Malik Muhammad, who already looks like a Day 3 steal. Just a few hours later, Poles moved up again, this time selecting Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg in the sixth round.

The Bears are making a bet on athletic upside

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I'll be blunt: van den Berg's stat sheet is nothing to write home about. He recorded just 5.5 sacks in five seasons, and three of those came in 2025. But sixth-round picks aren't for drafting guys with gaudy numbers (those prospects are all long gone anyway). These picks are for taking bets on freak athletes with sky-high upside, and that's van den Berg to a 'T'.

Originally from South Africa, van den Berg grew up playing rugby before taking up football once his family moved to America. He's a bit undersized for a defensive tackle, but he put on a historic show at the NFL Combine, posting a perfect 10.0 Relative Athletic Score (RAS). That's just the second time a defensive tackle has ever pulled off a 10.0 RAS at the Combine.

Look at these numbers. He threw up 35 reps on the bench press, hit a 36" vertical leap and a nine-foot-eleven broad jump, and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.94 seconds. For a six-foot-three, 310-pound defensive tackle, that's almost not believable. With athletic testing like that, his college production is almost irrelevant. You have to believe that any NFL coach worth his salt will be able to maximize a player with this kind of potential, especially a defensive coordinator as highly regarded as Dennis Allen.

The Bottom Line

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I had van den Berg in my final 2026 NFL mock draft for the Bears, and I'm thrilled to see him land in Chicago. He has a chance to be a special talent in the NFL, and the Bears are a perfect landing spot for him. He won't be an immediate contributor, and he may not even see the field in 2026. But if he keeps his head down, keeps grinding and improving his craft, I would not be surprised to see van den Berg compete for starting reps in 2027.

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