Can the Bears find future linemen at the Senior Bowl?

MOBILE, Ala. — The Detroit Lions’ playoff loss allowed the Chicago Bears to move quickly, hire Ben Johnson as head coach and get his coordinators set by conference championship Sunday.

It also set them up to approach Senior Bowl week with a shorter to-do list.

By keeping general manager Ryan Poles and his front-office staff, there are no Bears unknowns this week, which serves as the unofficial kickoff to the NFL Draft. Poles and his colleagues have their grading system. They’ve gone through this together for two years. Now they have Johnson alongside and can start altering their scout’s eye to what he wants.

Last year, defensive end Austin Booker’s performance at the Senior Bowl helped cement his spot on the Bears’ draft board.

“I thought he went down to Mobile at the Senior Bowl and had one of the better weeks there as a rusher, going up against some really talented prospects that went a lot earlier on the other side of the ball,” area scout John Syty said after the draft.

They also got a good look at punter Tory Taylor, three months before selecting him in Round 4, and nearly a year before he would break the franchise’s all-time record for gross punting average.

Head coaching interviews are over. Same with the coordinators. Johnson still has several more coaches to hire, and some of those conversations can happen in Mobile, but this week can allow Poles to do what he loves — scout players. It’s draft time, three months before the Bears make their first-round pick. Poles has draft capital, and impact rookies can help propel this team to where it wanted to go in 2024.

That all gets started in Mobile this week. Here are a few Bears-centric storylines to monitor:

Is the Bears’ 2025 starting tackle or guard in Mobile?

Johnson’s play calling speaks for itself, but he knows that having a great offensive line in Detroit allowed it to function at a high level. The Bears’ offensive line needs work.

“I think offensive line is certainly an area that we need to get better play from going forward, something that Ryan and I have already talked about,” Johnson said. “We will develop a plan of attack for how to get that done, but I’m looking forward to getting an excellent offensive line coach in the building to help develop the young talent that we already have on the roster, and we will certainly talk about acquiring talent to bolster that unit as well. But I was certainly blessed the last few years with the men that I worked with. And that was something I would love to replicate here as well.”

Right tackle Darnell Wright, the one “sure thing” up front for the Bears, stood out at the Senior Bowl two years ago. Left tackle Braxton Jones and former guard Ja’Tyre Carter also went from Mobile to the Bears.

This year’s group includes seven players who made it in colleague Dane Brugler’s two-round mock draft: Missouri tackle/guard Armand Membou (11th pick), Oregon tackle Josh Conerly Jr. (26th), Minnesota tackle Aireontae Ersery (33rd), Arizona guard Jonah Savaiinaea (36th), West Virginia guard Wyatt Milum (39th), Purdue tackle/guard Marcus Mbow (49th) and North Dakota State guard/center Grey Zabel (62nd).

Milum will be of particular interest. His style of play fits what we know Poles likes out of linemen — he has a “killer instinct” per Brugler, who sent him to the Bears in his latest mock draft. Zabel is one of Brugler’s intriguing prospects this week because he could come out of Mobile as one of the top centers.

Membou is “incredibly underrated,” per Brugler, and only 20 years old. Membou officially measured in at a shade under 6-foot-4, which might have him slotted as a guard for some teams, but he does have 34-inch arms. He’s the player in Mobile who, as of now, is most likely to be projected near where the Bears pick in Round 1.

Eyes on the defensive line

Brugler considers defensive line one of the strongest position groups in the draft. Among edge rushers and defensive tackles who accepted invitations to Mobile, 10 made it in the latest two-round mock draft, led by Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart. Slotted at No. 15, he’s the highest-touted defensive lineman in Mobile and may be one of the top prospects overall.

“His athleticism, combined with the strength in his hands and relentless motor, makes him a disruptive force — regardless of whether he is lined up on the edge or inside over the B-gap,” Brugler wrote.

Stewart is the only one who is currently projected to be in play for the Bears at the top of Round 1, but there’s a big group of edge rushers and interior linemen who Brugler has as late-first or second-round prospects: Marshall edge Mike Green, Texas A&M edge Nic Scourton, Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen, Arkansas edge Landon Jackson, Ole Miss edge Princely Umanmielen, Kentucky defensive tackle Deone Walker, Oregon edge Jordan Burch, Boston College edge Donovan Ezeiruaku and Texas defensive tackle Alfred Collins.

The pass-rush drills in the trenches attract a lot of attention from scouts, coaches and those of us in the media. Poles now has new defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s desired traits on his scouting list. As he looks for complements to Montez Sweat or someone else to throw in the rotation with Gervon Dexter, he could find that player in Mobile.

Getting Johnson some weapons

In addition to an offensive line full of Pro Bowlers, Johnson had an impressive collection of skill players, and not necessarily guys drafted in Round 1. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Sam LaPorta were mid-round picks.

If the Bears don’t re-sign Keenan Allen, they’ll need a No. 3 receiver. Looking at players Brugler highlighted as speedsters — something the Bears need — Iowa State’s Jaylin Noel and Oregon’s Tez Johnson could stand out this week. Or maybe Johnson wants a possession receiver, too, to replace Allen. Stanford wide receiver Elic Ayomanor might be in that category.

Ball carriers and pass catchers should probably be Day 3 targets for a Bears team that has bigger needs in the trenches. While the Lions benefited greatly from the surprising decision to take running back Jahmyr Gibbs in Round 1, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty isn’t in Mobile. But Kansas running back Devin Neal is, along with a couple of other familiar names to college football fans: Donovan Edwards (Michigan) and Ollie Gordon (Oklahoma State). Johnson figures to want to add some more playmaking to the Bears’ backfield after seeing what Gibbs and David Montgomery did for Detroit.

Who will play tight end with Cole Kmet? It’s a position the Bears haven’t gotten any production from, and we saw the Lions use both LaPorta and Brock Wright successfully. Brugler’s top pass-catching tight ends at the Senior Bowl are Mason Taylor (LSU), Harold Fannin (Bowling Green), Gunnar Helm (Texas) and Elijah Arroyo (Miami).

The rumor mill

With representatives from all 32 teams, along with agents, in the same town for 48-72 hours, expect a lot of unofficial conversations ahead of free agency. This is usually part of any origin story of a big trade or major free-agent signing.

The Bears have a lot of salary-cap space, plus an extra second-round pick, and we can never rule out Poles being involved in the trade market.

Now with Johnson and his vision for the team, Poles can see what certain markets might look like for players the Bears covet. This is not a rebuilding team. The Bears will be expected to contend for a wild-card spot next season. To make that happen, they will have to add a starter or two or three in free agency. The talks will heat up in Indianapolis at the combine next month, but the seeds are often planted in Alabama.

What’s the view of the Bears?

For the third offseason in a row, the Bears should be a common topic of conversation. In 2023, they held the No. 1 pick, one that many expected would be traded — and it was. Last year, the talk focused on Caleb Williams and how the Bears were set up with the top pick.

Now, they have three picks in the top 41, a new head coach, a quarterback who generates a lot of conversation — positive and negative — and just wrapped up one of the more publicized seasons for a team not in the playoffs.

We’ll be trying to gauge the tenor in Mobile — what does the league think about the Johnson hire? What’s the outlook for Williams? The Senior Bowl also sometimes serves as an unofficial coaches convention, and Johnson — if he’s here — can use the time to interview coaches and keep filling out his staff. Matt Nagy worked on that here in 2018, and Matt Eberflus did the same in 2022.

One of these years, maybe the Bears won’t be talked about much as it pertains to their quarterback. They have their guy, but now it’s about supporting him and getting him to take that next step. Players and coaches who can help him could be found in Mobile.