Bears GM Ryan Poles Targets O-Line, D-Line in 2026 NFL Draft

Ryan Poles walks into his fifth NFL Draft Thursday with a problem that’s followed him since he took the job at Halas Hall: the Chicago Bears still can’t field reliable lines on either side of the ball.

The Bears hold picks 10, 25, 57 and 60. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, left tackle, defensive end and defensive tackle have to be top priorities in rounds one and two. For a former offensive lineman running a franchise, Poles hasn’t been able to consistently build the one unit he knows better than most. That’s not a small irony.

He thought he’d cracked it last year. Poles gutted the offensive line, rebuilt it, and spent a second-round pick on left tackle Ozzy Trapilo. The group held long enough to put the Bears in the playoffs. Then everything broke.

Trapilo suffered a knee injury in the postseason that could threaten his career. Center Drew Dalman, who’d just made the Pro Bowl, retired at 27. The Bears have confirmed Trapilo won’t be available for most or all of the 2026 season, and there’s enough uncertainty around his long-term health that the team can’t sit and wait.

Left tackle at No. 25 isn’t just a reasonable option. It’s close to mandatory.

Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor, Georgia’s Monroe Freeling and Clemson’s Blake Miller are the names most often attached to that range. Any of them would give coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams something they haven’t had enough of: a real answer on the blind side instead of another patchwork rotation. If Trapilo comes back healthy in 2027, the Bears would have genuine trade value at the position. That’s a workable situation. The alternative, leaving Williams exposed again during what should be a critical year of his development, isn’t.

The defensive line is its own problem, and it’s been around longer. Poles has tried free agency, trades, draft picks. The results have been uneven. This class offers some second-round options, and the Bears are sitting on two picks there at 57 and 60.

At defensive end, the names circulating around Chicago include Miami’s Akheem Mesidor, Missouri’s Zion Young, Auburn’s Keldric Faulk, Texas A&M’s Cassius Howell and Clemson’s T.J. Parker. The defensive tackle pool is thinner but does include Clemson’s Peter Woods and Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald. McDonald visited Halas Hall and told reporters directly: “I’m their No. 1 guy.” The Bears’ interest in McDonald appears real, whatever you make of his self-assessment.

Poles could try to move up. He generally won’t. He’s been reluctant to burn future draft capital on a single position, and that discipline has shaped how the Bears’ roster has been assembled over the last four years. It’s a principled approach. It also means the Bears are frequently picking from whoever’s left at their slot rather than going to get who they actually want.

That tension is the central question of 2026 for Poles. He’s rebuilding a franchise that made the playoffs last season, then watched key pieces fall apart before the next draft even arrived. The window with Williams isn’t closing yet, but it’s not standing open forever either.

“We’ve got to get this right on both lines,” Poles told reporters earlier this week. “That’s the job.”

Simple enough. Executing it is something else.

The picks at 57 and 60 are close enough together that Poles could potentially address both defensive tackle and defensive end in the second round if the board cooperates. That’s a reasonable scenario, not a guaranteed one. Draft boards don’t cooperate on schedule, and Poles has seen enough April surprises to know that.

What’s not in question is the need. The Bears don’t have a proven left tackle on the current roster heading into 2026. Their defensive line produced inconsistently last season even when healthy. Poles has four picks in the first two rounds to fix both problems. That’s a reasonable amount of ammunition. Whether he uses it well is what Thursday and Friday are for.