MOBILE, Ala. — With Ben Johnson at Halas Hall working to assemble his Chicago Bears coaching staff, NFL draft season got rolling this week during Senior Bowl practices in advance of Saturday’s game at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the campus of South Alabama.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles made a one-day appearance Wednesday to see a quality group of prospects. There’s not as much talent here as there was in 2024, but that’s reflective of a more wide-open first round than anything else. It’s a great draft for running backs and there’s good depth at offensive line and tight end — all positions that could be intriguing to the Bears.
Unloading the notebook with what I picked up from three days working the town, including tidbits on free agency, the draft, the coaching staff and more.
1. The prevailing thought during the season was there was no way Kansas City Chiefs right guard Trey Smith would make it to free agency.
Smith has been an anchor for the Chiefs since they drafted him in the sixth round in 2021. He has become one of the best guards in the league and is entering the prime years of his career, as he doesn’t turn 26 until June.
Now there’s growing sentiment that the Chiefs, with other key young players needing to be paid, could allow Smith to enter free agency. Another possibility is using the nonexclusive franchise tag on Smith as a means of engineering a tag-and-trade scenario, as they did in March with cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.
How could the Chiefs, who have to prioritize protecting quarterback Patrick Mahomes, possibly let Smith go?
“He might just get to free agency,” one general manager told me Wednesday morning. “The $20 million guard thing really scares some teams. Teams have seen how the top guards have been paid, and some of them, they don’t want to go there.”
The marketplace for interior offensive linemen has taken off. The highest-paid guard in the league — the Philadelphia Eagles’ Landon Dickerson — will be playing against the Chiefs and Smith in Super Bowl LIX. Dickerson is earning $21 million per season.
Chris Lindstrom of the Atlanta Falcons ($20.5 million average), Quenton Nelson of the Indianapolis Colts ($20 million) and Robert Hunt of the Carolina Panthers ($20 million) are all at or above the figure the GM referenced, and if Smith reaches the open market, he’s a shoo-in to reset the ceiling for guard pay. If the Chiefs use the franchise tag on Smith, it’s expected that figure will come in just above $23 million, a good bump above Dickerson.
Teams used to prioritize paying offensive tackles and tried to save money on the interior, but that has shifted slowly over the last decade and even more in the last five years. Teams have placed a greater emphasis on having a firm pocket for the quarterback to step up into to avoid pressure from the edges. Five other guards earn $17 million or more per season, so it’s not like only a few teams have started opening the vault for the position.
It requires a special player for teams to want to dig that deep for a guard, though, because of the adage that they don’t “score touchdowns or prevent touchdowns.”
“And they don’t protect the edges,” a pro personnel man said. “The first place you have to win in football is on the edges. But Trey Smith is awesome. Young, athletic, incredible run blocker, very good in pass protection. Prime of his career. Championship pedigree now.”
Smith tumbled in the draft when he came out of Tennessee because he had a blood-clot disorder — pulmonary emboli — that no longer should be a worry. He has missed only one game in his career.
It’s easy to see the Bears being a serious player for Smith, considering Ryan Poles was a high-ranking member of the Chiefs front office when Smith was drafted. It’s also easy to envision any number of teams with ample cap space — the New England Patriots, Washington Commanders, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Chargers and Minnesota Vikings, among others — being interested.
If Smith hits the open market, he would have no shortage of suitors. If the Chiefs use the franchise tag on Smith with the intent of trading him, perhaps that could benefit the Bears because Kansas City would have some control over where he went.
The Chiefs dealt Sneed to the Tennessee Titans in March for a 2025 third-round pick and a swap of 2024 seventh-round picks. If all things were close to equal, maybe the Chiefs would prefer to trade Smith to an NFC team? That’s just me thinking aloud.
The Chiefs have a small handful of super-talented young players they need to find a way to pay. Defensive end George Karlaftis, cornerback Trent McDuffie and Smith are in that basket. It’s a great problem to have for the Chiefs, who are going for a three-peat.
If they don’t want to go north of $20 million for Smith — and veteran guard Joe Thuney will be in the final year of a five-year, $80 million contract in 2025 — maybe Smith gets out. I asked around a little about Thuney and whether the Chiefs could move on from him, and the folks I chatted with thought that was unlikely.
Everyone is playing connect-the-dots with Smith and the Bears, and there’s no question it’s something the team is keeping a close eye on. Know this: Lots of teams will be monitoring this situation, and some will be more than willing to make Smith the highest-paid guard in the league if they have the opportunity.
First he has to make it out of Kansas City, and it won’t be an easy decision for the Chiefs after the Super Bowl.
2. Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton was on a quick getaway to Cabo San Lucas when his phone pinged every day he was there.
Each time it was a new request from another team considering hiring one of Payton’s assistants. The Naperville Central and Eastern Illinois graduate joked that it was a little irritating, but it was in jest. This has been a big offseason for members of the Payton coaching tree.
Aaron Glenn, hired as the New York Jets head coach, got his first job as a position coach from Payton in 2016 with the New Orleans Saints. The Bears hired Declan Doyle as offensive coordinator after he worked for two seasons as the Broncos tight ends coach and four before that (three under Payton) as an offensive assistant in New Orleans.
The Detroit Lions hired Broncos passing game coordinator John Morton as their offensive coordinator to replace Ben Johnson. The Jets hired Broncos assistant special teams coach Chris Banjo as their coordinator. Has a team ever supplied three coordinators for other teams in one offseason?
“You take pride in it,” Payton said. “I remember when I first got to New Orleans, Mr. (Tom) Benson (the Saints owner) came in after 2006, we’d lost to the Bears in the (NFC) championship game, and he said, ‘Coach, I don’t like that all the assistants are interviewing for other jobs.’
“I said, ‘Mr. Benson, is that unfamiliar for you?’ I said, ‘You should worry if no one is interested in our assistants.’”
Doyle is interesting because, at 28, he’s the youngest coordinator in the NFL. It’s not the kind of promotion he necessarily was expecting. Neither was Payton, but at the same time, he wasn’t caught off guard that another team would have interest in Doyle.
“I hired him right out of Iowa, sharp, made a good impression,” Payton said. “Came in and he was a good worker. The longer you do this, the more you appreciate coaches that have intelligence but they also wear well in the building. They get along with their staff members.
“Declan is one of those guys that was extremely professional and yet was super smart and therefore super tactful. In other words, he knew the timing of when to interject and maybe when not to as a young coach.”
Quality control coaches will have tells early on if they’re cut out for the business. The jobs are grueling — long hours with lots of demands — and Doyle impressed.
“It happened early,” Payton said. “You observe work ethic and you observe attention to detail. He’d jot me a note at the end of the season. It wasn’t like in any way, shape or form overkill. It was really timely. Tip sheets at the end of each week with the reports and reminders for the tight ends that he would put on my desk. He had great insight and I valued his opinion when we got into the installation meetings. This was from a first-year coach.”
Payton described how a successful coach needs to blend his staff with assistants who have different strengths and how Doyle fit in for him.
“You need a combination on your staff,” he said. “Some guys are riveters, some guys are glue guys, some guys are scientists, you know. Declan is one of those scientists. He’s smart. So he would have good scheme ideas that I valued and not everyone has to. You have to have a staff that is mixed up that way. But I would say almost like a machine. I wouldn’t say quiet. Very focused on his players. Very intelligent.
“One of the early signs of inexperience for young coaches is if they try to cover everything. There’s a saying, ‘Only the expert knows what to ignore.’ In other words, the young coach — even myself, I can think back to when I was at Indiana State, and you’ve covered everything and in your mind you check it all off. But the problem is by covering everything, you’ve really covered nothing for the player. Declan had a good teaching skill set and understood that.”
How Doyle fits in for Johnson remains to be seen, but Payton always has called offensive plays as the head coach, which Johnson plans to do. Doyle won’t have play-calling duties but there will be large responsibilities that come with a bigger title.
“I spoke to Ben for quite a while,” Payton said. “Periodically (as the head coach), you’re going to be down the hallway with the GM or wherever. Occasionally you get pulled from that offensive meeting and you want the tempo of the meeting to still continue. You don’t want everyone to go on a pee break and wait for you to come back.
“Declan will do a great job working closely with Ben, keeping him up to speed when there are times when Ben will get pulled from an offseason meeting or an in-season meeting. That inevitably happens.”
3. The Bears have a few different directions they could go to overhaul the offensive line.
The puzzle almost certainly will include pieces added via free agency and the draft. But how they fit together is the story that has to be answered.
My thinking for some time is the Bears will emphasize getting better on the interior to create a more consistent pocket for quarterback Caleb Williams. That scenario likely would require three new starters. If the team invests heavily from guard to guard, Braxton Jones probably goes into the summer atop the depth chart at left tackle with the team eager to see where a fully healthy Kiran Amegadjie is.
There’s also a scenario in which the Bears are in the market for a new left tackle. I don’t know if that player is available in free agency — it’s a down year across the board and things drop off quickly after Trey Smith and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. That player could be available in the draft.
Before we dive into names and highlight players who looked good in Senior Bowl practices, realize that if you’re banking on the Bears having an offensive line that is 80% new with only right tackle Darnell Wright returning as a starter, something will have to give elsewhere with other roster needs and wants.
This doesn’t stack up as a great draft for offensive linemen, but there is depth. There isn’t a left tackle prospect who is a slam-dunk top-five pick without clear holes in his game.
LSU’s Will Campbell has tremendous makeup and played at a high level in college. He’ll get dinged at the scouting combine for having short arms. How short? We’ll see. Ideally, teams prefer a left tackle to have at least 34-inch arms. When I chatted with a college scouting director last month, he told me Campbell stood out for being really strong with excellent feet and was super competitive. The length is a concern and different teams will weigh that differently.
It’s possible Campbell makes it to No. 10, where the Bears are drafting, but the top 10 is wide open. It’s a bad draft for quarterbacks, so that doesn’t help teams who aren’t shopping for one.
Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. is another left tackle who could come off the board in the top half of Round 1. It’s really early in the process to start guessing where players will go. The safe play for Ryan Poles — and it’s not sexy — is to draft Alabama guard Tyler Booker at No. 10. He’s as clean of a prospect as there probably will be in that range, a guy with a high floor and considerable ceiling. Interior linemen don’t often go in the top 10 though.
Where this draft has some bright options for linemen is on Day 2. There were some talented players in Mobile who could find their way into the back half of Round 1 when the evaluation process is complete.
One player who really captured the attention of folks I visited with was North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel. He got action at tackle, guard and center. Most believe the Bison left tackle will emerge as a guard in the NFL, but he looked powerful and pretty fluid wherever he lined up.
“Excellent anchoring versus power,” a college scouting director said. “He sticks on someone, he locks on and he anchors. He’s got good anchor mobility. That allows him to handle power. He’s not stiff in his ankles. He redirects very well. The best thing about him, watch where his hands are. His hands are always inside and in the proper position, so he has obviously been well-coached.
“That’s what you expect when you have that helmet on. That’s why guys don’t leave North Dakota State. They know they are getting coached, getting developed and they know they have a direct path to the NFL, plus they win all the time and they get more tape because they play more games in the FCS playoffs.
“And they play in a system that translates very well to the NFL. Zone and gap run game, drop-back passing, play-action passing. Outside of places like Iowa and the old-school Wisconsin, there aren’t many like them anymore in college football.”
Zabel was a standout for the National team, and Oregon left tackle Josh Conerly — a potential first-round pick — West Virginia’s Wyatt Milun and North Carolina State’s Anthony Belton also looked the part. On the American roster, LSU’s Emery Jones, Arizona’s Jonah Savaiinaea and Alabama A&M’s Carson Vinson showed well.
Savaiinaea, at 6-foot-5, 336 pounds, played right tackle last fall and likely will be a guard. He moves pretty well for his size and comes from the Honolulu powerhouse Saint Louis School that produced six-time Pro Bowl Bears center Olin Kreutz.
“I just want to show teams that I can respond to adversity and I am not going to make the same mistake over and over,” said Savaiinaea, who projects as a Day 2 pick. “I am going to learn from a mistake the first time.”
Linemen, especially guards, should be valued in Rounds 2 and 3, and depending on what unfolds in free agency and Round 1, the Bears could find a player there. They’ll have to stock the line with some talent on rookie contracts because filling all of their holes with veterans would be expensive and ultimately a short-term fix.
4. This isn’t just a good draft for running backs — it’s potentially a great draft, at least in terms of depth.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty (No. 3), North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton (No. 29) and Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins (No. 34) and TreVeyon Henderson (No. 36) all made the initial top 50 prospects list compiled by NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah. Scouts I have chatted with are confident teams will be able to find quality backs into the third, fourth and even fifth rounds, depending on what traits a team is seeking.
“Day 2 (Rounds 2-3) is going to be a feeding ground for running backs,” one college scouting director said.
It’s coincidental that the draft will offer such a great group of players — a list that should include Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo, Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson and Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon — after an NFL season in which running backs have been dominant.
“You know what this Super Bowl (LIX) is?” a senior personnel man said. “The absolute world’s best quarterback versus the absolute world’s best running back. It’s a really interesting look at value for those two. There is no one better than Patrick Mahomes and there is no one better than Saquon Barkley. No matter how you stack those positions up, you cannot beat either one of those guys.”
Barkley rushed for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns during the regular season for the Philadelphia Eagles and has added 442 yards and five scores in the postseason march to the Super Bowl. Seven backs had 1,299 yards or more during the regular season, and the Detroit Lions with Ben Johnson almost certainly would have had two 1,000-yard rushers had a knee injury not sidelined former Bear David Montgomery late in the season. Jahmyr Gibbs finished with 1,412 yards and Montgomery had 775 in 14 games (he was injured after only five carries in the 14th game).
Positional value for running backs is a deep topic for another day. There are still factors in a passing league that lead teams to devalue the position. Durability is a big one. Look at what happened to the San Francisco 49ers this season when high-priced running back Christian McCaffrey was sidelined.
But when teams have a true star at the position, like the Eagles do, and a top offensive line, like the Eagles do, it’s a path to success. The Lions certainly leaned into that formula, too, with their two-headed backfield. Gibbs has more natural ability and elite traits, but Montgomery was a tone-setter for the Lions. It will be interesting to see what kind of influence Johnson has on the position with the Bears as we look ahead to free agency and more likely the draft.
Teams have been hesitant to use first-round picks on running backs in recent years. The highest-drafted back in 2024 was Jonathon Brooks, who went in Round 2 at No. 46 to the Carolina Panthers. In 2023, Bijan Robinson (Atlanta Falcons) and Gibbs were first-round picks. Why? Both are ultraproductive in the passing game.
Jeanty is a slam dunk to be a first-round pick. After him, it’s hard to say if another back will go in Round 1, but there ought to be a real run on the position beginning in Round 2, carrying into Round 3 and even early on Day 3.
Johnson has said he will design the offense around quarterback Caleb Williams and not just try to drop the Lions playbook into Halas Hall and work from that. You have to imagine he will make the ground attack a focal point, which likely means adding some juice to the position to pair with D’Andre Swift, with whom Johnson worked previously in Detroit.
If you view Swift as sort of what Gibbs is — a player with open-field ability — what the Bears need is a new version of Montgomery. They need a tone-setter. Swift isn’t as gifted as Gibbs athletically, but they’re similar in some regards. There’s no question Gibbs has more tools than Montgomery, but Montgomery was the player in the Lions offense who did what? He set the tone.
“That’s not on the roster right now in Chicago,” an assistant general manager for another team said. “Roschon (Johnson) runs too high, and I like Roschon as a back.”
The Bears drafted Montgomery early in the third round — No. 73 in 2019 — and that might be the sweet spot for the position in this draft. There’s a lot of time to consider which players would fit that mold, but I’d look for a player who brings a physical presence to the running game.
As exciting as Jeanty is, I don’t see the Bears being in play for him. They need to invest in the offensive line, and in this draft they should be able to get a very capable back on Day 2.
Michigan’s Donovan Edwards is probably the best running back in Mobile, playing for the National team. There’s a ton of running back talent not at the Senior Bowl, and this will be a position to follow closely in the coming months.
5. It’s a bad draft for centers, which is a position of need for the Bears.
The Bears have been using a bit of a revolving door at center the last couple of seasons, including Coleman Shelton in 2024 on a one-year contract.
It’s a difficult position for scouts every year because college centers aren’t tasked with all the responsibilities they’re asked to perform in the NFL. When you don’t have a good one, it can be a task to find a replacement.
USC’s Jonah Monheim, a converted left tackle, might be the best center at the Senior Bowl. He’s athletic for the position and has decent size but isn’t the best in the class, a distinction that probably goes to Georgia’s Jared Wilson. Monheim is nowhere near as good as Zach Frazier from West Virginia, the top center in last year’s class who went in the second round to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So it stands to reason the Bears could be shopping for a center in free agency. A few options include the Atlanta Falcons’ Drew Dalman, Indianapolis Colts’ Ryan Kelly and Green Bay Packers’ Josh Myers.
Dalman, 26, stands out as the best of the group, and the 2021 fourth-round pick from Stanford would make a lot of sense if the Bears pushed to sign him. The Falcons reportedly would like to re-sign the 6-foot-3, 305-pound Dalman, but they’re snug against the salary cap. It’s worth noting the Bears have done plenty of business with Dalman’s agent, Steve Caric, in recent years.
“Clear and away the best center,” a pro personnel scout said. “He’s young. He’s an undersized player and his best fit is in a zone run game where he can climb and move. Really good athlete. Positional blocker. Not a dominating blocker. Incredibly smart.
“I like him best in a zone run scheme because he is going to be able to reach and climb and play in space. He’s entering his prime years and doesn’t have an injury history. He had an ankle for a couple games last year but otherwise has a pretty clean history. That’s the guy to get.”
Kelly, who turns 32 in May, is a four-time Pro Bowl selection for the Colts, but he’d probably be a backup plan for the Bears because they’d be buying a player who is nearing the end of his career. Kelly has missed 10 games over the last two seasons but has 121 starts since the Colts drafted him in the first round in 2016 out of Alabama.
6. One of the real shames from this season was the best-laid plans for improving the tight end position never got going.
The Bears signed Gerald Everett in free agency to a two-year, $12 million contract, and not only were they unable to execute a plan to involve him in the offense, they really struggled getting the ball to Cole Kmet as well. Marcedes Lewis did his part as a blocker, but the entire operation for offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was problematic and what the Bears drew up in the offseason on paper never came to life on the field.
It would not be surprising if the Bears released Everett and reimagined the position with Kmet a focal point. The hiring of Ben Johnson could be a best-case scenario for Kmet, who has upside in the passing game and as a blocker. Johnson should have clearer and more defined ideas for how to utilize the tight end. Kmet could be a player who really benefits from the coaching change.
But the Bears need fresh talent at the position, and this draft has some upside in Round 1 (I don’t see the Bears pulling the trigger on a tight end at No. 10) and on Day 2. It’s a good class for the position, perhaps really good.
Penn State’s Tyler Warren and Michigan’s Colston Loveland are two of the best. They aren’t in Mobile, but there is an impressive bunch that includes LSU’s Mason Taylor, Nebraska’s Thomas Fidone II and Alabama’s C.J. Dippre on the American roster, and Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr. and Miami’s Elijah Arroyo on the National squad.
The Bears will have to decide specifically what they’re looking for. A special athlete who makes an impact in the passing game. A rugged blocker. Or more likely a hybrid who can do a little bit of everything.
Johnson leaned on his tight ends heavily in Detroit. While Sam LaPorta’s production dipped in Year 2 (QB Jared Goff had a ton of players to spread the ball around to), tight ends got 1,686 snaps in the Lions offense with LaPorta (79.3%) and Brock Wright (50.8%) getting the bulk of the work.
Arroyo had a breakout season for the Hurricanes, and teams will want to take a close look at his medical situation as knee issues hampered him for two years. But he’s super athletic, offers a lot of upside in run after the catch and just needs fundamental work as a blocker.
Fannin was wildly productive at Bowling Green, and a senior scout I chatted with was super impressed with the coaching Fannin received and how the offense was designed around his skill set.
Taylor, the son of Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame pass rusher Jason Taylor, is a skilled receiver in the open field but more of a finesse blocker.
This is just scratching the surface of what will be available in the draft. Texas’ Gunnar Helm is another intriguing prospect who isn’t in Mobile. Tight end, running back and offensive line will have intriguing options for the Bears in Rounds 2 and 3 and probably into Round 4.
7. Ryan Poles had pressing business at this time last year.
He had to use the franchise tag as a means toward hammering out a four-year, $76 million extension with cornerback Jaylon Johnson. While there isn’t the same kind of urgency in terms of a timeline to pay nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon, don’t be surprised if the Bears work on a new contract for Gordon this offseason.
Gordon, a second-round pick in 2022 from Washington, has one year remaining on his rookie contract, and it stands to reason the Bears would like to have him in the fold moving forward. It was notable when Ben Johnson named Gordon as one of the bright spots on the roster at his introductory news conference.
The Bears have plenty of cap space this offseason, and it makes all the sense in the world to use a chunk of that to secure Gordon. Remember, teams with an abundance of cap space usually do best when they use it to prevent their own players from leaving via free agency.
“I haven’t really talked about (an extension) a lot, but people have brought it up to me a couple times,” Gordon told me just before the end of the season, indicating he’s open to hearing what the team might have in mind.
The Bears feel like Gordon was more valuable than his statistics suggest. He finished with 75 tackles, four tackles for a loss, a half-sack, five pass deflections, one forced fumble and three fumble recoveries. Reality is a lot of weeks the ball just didn’t come his way. Tough to pile up numbers if the action is away from you.
“People are not going at him anymore,” former nickel cornerbacks coach David Overstreet said. “Nobody throws at him. He’s not getting targets like he was getting before and that’s a credit to him. It’s a sign of respect. Even now in the run game, they’re motioning people out to pull him out. It’s a respect thing.”
Where things will get interesting for the Bears and Gordon is the valuation of a new contract. The top cornerbacks are getting close to $20 million per season or more. Johnson is one of 11 averaging $19 million or more. The ceiling for slot cornerbacks is about half of that.
The New York Jets’ Michael Carter II and the Buffalo Bills’ Taron Johnson each signed three-year, $30.75 million contracts ($10.25 million annual average) last year, moving just ahead of the Indianapolis Colts’ Kenny Moore, who is on a three-year, $30 million deal.
You’d imagine that’s a ballpark range for what Gordon can get. Usually the team hopes to get a little discount for paying a player early because it inherits injury risk. Gordon is aware of the disparity in pay for nickel cornerbacks versus those who line up on the outside.
“I’m an everything,” Gordon said. “I’m not just a nickel. I go inside, outside. Sometimes you will see Jaylon go down and I play outside corner. Really anything.
“That (pay difference) is crazy because to me I feel like I play three positions, really four positions almost. I feel like I play linebacker, safety, nickel and corner. It’s crazy to think that doesn’t get incorporated. That’s just what the business is.”
Coaches said Gordon elevated his game the last two years with a better understanding of film study and the long hours it takes to find tells from the offense. Diagnosing what happens — especially on the inside, where there’s more traffic and more going on — requires instincts, and the Bears feel good about where Gordon is.
It’s impossible to say what kind of timeline there could be for a deal to get done, especially with no deadline to spur action.
8. National head coach Mike Kafka, the New York Giants offensive coordinator, was one of 17 known candidates who interviewed for the Bears job that went to Ben Johnson.
It was a dream opportunity for the 37-year-old Kafka, who prepped at St. Rita before playing quarterback at Northwestern. Kafka is still in the running to become the New Orleans Saints coach, although they reportedly are targeting Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Kafka has had two interviews with the Saints and previously was a finalist for head coaching jobs with the Seattle Seahawks and Houston Texans. He also has interviewed with the Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts, so there’s reason to believe he has enough momentum to remain a top candidate even if the Saints go with Moore after the Super Bowl.
He certainly has been on the fast track considering he didn’t get into coaching until 2016, when he joined the Northwestern staff as a graduate assistant a year before Andy Reid hired him for his Kansas City Chiefs staff.
“That was pretty cool,” Kafka said of interviewing with the Bears. “Especially talking with Mr. (George) McCaskey, Ryan Poles, Ted Crews and Kevin Warren. Jeff King was in there as well and Liz Geist. There were a lot of great people. I know Poles has a really cool group surrounding him to be successful.”
I asked Kafka what he tried to impress the Bears with in the virtual interview, and he said it was an interesting dynamic because he has a strong relationship with Poles and Crews from their time together with the Chiefs.
“The most important thing about an interview like that, especially a Zoom one, is the reality was the other people from the organization didn’t know me as well,” Kafka said. “I was trying to allow them to get to know me, better understand what I am about, and then you talk through your philosophy, the things that are important to you as a coach and there are a wide variety of questions.
“You try to be as honest and give them your best experiences, things you have learned from and really give them an entire scope of who you are as a person.”
Kafka remains hopeful he gets the Saints job but is optimistic his coaching star is rising. The Giants gave him the additional title of assistant head coach this season.
“Whatever that one is, it’s going to be the right one,” he said of his first head coaching opportunity. “And certainly the New Orleans one is an opportunity that I am really excited about. I am just trying to stay patient. I know anyone would be lucky to have a job like that.”
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is in Kafka’s corner, that much is for sure. Kafka was the quality control coach in Mahomes’ rookie season and then the quarterbacks coach in the first two seasons Mahomes was the starter.
“Coach Kafka is a special person and a special coach,” Mahomes said at the Super Bowl two years ago. “He kind of took me (under his wing). I spent a lot of hours with Coach Kafka where he was teaching me the playbook and teaching me how to become a quarterback in the NFL. That continued for a long time.”
The Eagles drafted Kafka in the fourth round in 2010. Coming from the Reid coaching tree will benefit him.
“Coach Reid has had a very big influence on me as a person, as a coach and even as a football player and how I see the game — the offensive side of the field and the defensive side,” Kafka said. “Those years with him as a player and being in the quarterback room and also those years of being in Kansas City and helping develop Patrick and working in the quarterback room and being in the game-planning meetings, going to a couple Super Bowls and winning one, losing one … those are experiences, when you go through the heat of the battle with someone, you start to find out a little more about yourself and what you’re about and what things are important to you. Absolutely, those experiences helped shape me.”
9. The Bears are expected to interview Tulane’s Dan Roushar for offensive line coach Friday.
The team interviewed Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye on Wednesday, and it’s possible another college coach could emerge as a candidate. This is a big hire for Ben Johnson as the Bears need to get significantly better in the trenches, and they are expected to pour serious resources into the line this offseason.
It’s difficult to handicap how things will shake out because, as one coach who is seeking work told me Wednesday night, “One day you hear you’re good and you’re going one place, and the next day you’re not going there.” Yes, it’s a high-paced, high-stakes game of musical chairs as teams seek to fill out staffs and coaches seek jobs and/or promotions.
Roushar, 64, has been at Tulane the last two seasons but has 10 years of NFL experience with the New Orleans Saints and was on the staff with new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle for the final four years of his run there. If that’s a factor in the evaluation, things could tilt toward Roushar. Everyone I ran into in Mobile had positive things to say about him.
Some folks will tell you the offensive line coach is the most important position coach on any staff. So it will be a significant move for Johnson, as will his choice for a defensive line coach.
None of the defensive position coaches under Matt Eberflus will stay. Linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi and safeties coach Andre Curtis followed Eberflus to the Dallas Cowboys, who hired him as defensive coordinator. Defensive line coach Travis Smith is not expected to return to the Bears.
The team has hired Bill Johnson as a defensive assistant, first reported by Aaron Wilson of Houston’s KPRC. Johnson was the defensive line coach for the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions and worked with Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen in New Orleans. It’s uncertain what his specific title is, but it’s not believed he will be the primary defensive line coach.
It sounds like tight ends coach Jim Dray has a chance to be part of Ben Johnson’s staff.
10. Coming off a 10-win season with one of the youngest teams in college football, Illinois is in pretty good shape for next fall.
Coach Bret Bielema swung through Mobile on Wednesday to see wide receiver Pat Bryant, the All-Big Ten performer who is the school’s lone participant in the game.
During the fall, a couple of national scouts I chatted with pegged Bryant as a high Day 3 pick with a chance to maybe squeeze into the end of Day 2. That will depend on how Bryant fares this week and next month at the scouting combine.
He’s not a twitched-up athlete but he can play all three positions — something Bryant stressed to teams he met with — and he delivered in big moments time and again for the Illini.
“I want to show my competitiveness and my versatility and my passion for the game here,” Bryant said. “I’m going against the best. Teams have asked me where I would play better, outside or inside. I said, ‘Shoot, wherever you all put me, I am going to perform.’”
Bielema, who came in from St. Louis and was on his way to Florida, said the captain was the one veteran player he leaned on most last season.
“We have a little thing in our program — TSD: tough, smart and dependable — and he’s the DNA of that every day,” Bielema said of Bryant. “Gifted athletically and he could play all three positions for us — inside and outside. Really big catch radius and he played big when it was in the bigger moments.”
If Bryant runs well in Indianapolis, he will make himself some money.
10a. Illinois State safety Keondre Jackson was playing video games — EA Sports “College Football 25,” of all games — when his phone rang Jan. 19. It was an Arizona area code he didn’t recognize.
“I had just talked to the Pittsburgh Steelers the night before and I was on FaceTime with a friend while I was playing,” Jackson said. “I said, ‘Who could this be? Maybe it’s the Cardinals.’”
Jackson answered and on the other end of the line was Jim Nagy, executive director of the Senior Bowl, offering him a late invitation to the game. Jackson, who already had participated in the Hula Bowl, accepted.
“Anytime you get a chance to come play football again, put the helmet on again after you come out of school, it’s always a blessing,” Jackson said. “You never know what is guaranteed or not.”
A Freeport High School graduate, Jackson enrolled at Division II Nebraska-Kearney for one semester before transferring to Illinois State and walking on to the football team. He earned a scholarship and became a mainstay in the Redbirds secondary.
Jackson profiles as an undrafted free agent who likely will get a shot in training camp with a team, but the Senior Bowl invite no doubt has boosted his stock a little bit.
10b. We’ll have to see what shakes out for veteran offensive lineman Matt Pryor after the Bears finish hiring the coaching staff and evaluating the roster.
I’d say there’s a chance they will consider re-signing Pryor in advance of free agency. He was third among the team’s linemen in offensive snaps (1,006) and started 15 games, primarily at right guard. Pryor expressed a desire to put down roots, and depending on how the coaches view him, it’s something to file in the back of your mind.
I don’t see the Bears signing Pryor as a starter, but he would provide value because he can play every position on the line but center. He has good size and performed better at a lighter weight. He had played at about 370 pounds previously in his career and was between 350 and 355 this season, and the difference helped him.
The Bears figure to overhaul the offensive line and likely will focus on the interior. Getting a core backup they’re familiar with and who proved to be durable would make sense and probably can be accomplished with a relatively modest deal.
10c. The Bears were one of seven teams to change head coaches this offseason, with the New Orleans Saints yet to replace Dennis Allen. That comes a year after eight new coaches were hired, giving you a picture in which nearly half the league turns over its coaches every two years.
Of the six other teams that will have new coaches, the Bears are scheduled to play three in 2025: the Dallas Cowboys (Brian Schottenheimer), Las Vegas Raiders (Pete Carroll) and Saints.
The schedule includes 10 games against teams that reached the postseason, with the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings counting for two each. Add the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, and it sets up to be a challenging slate.
