When former Chicago Bears receiver Dez White introduced Chicago’s second-round draft pick, he chided the Green Bay Packers fans there at Lambeau Field and introduced the Bears as the “2025 NFC North champions.”
The division is hard. The Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings were tremendous last year and the Packers are as young and deep as any team in the NFL. But it’s not like White’s proclamation sounded that outlandish.
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Chicago has had a remarkable offseason. The Bears, who bolstered the offensive line and added to the defense in free agency, doubled up on the skill positions in the draft. In the first round they took Michigan tight end Colston Loveland. In the second round they took Missouri receiver Luther Burden III, a talented though sometimes confouding prospect. But Burden’s ceiling is pretty high. And he’ll start as the Bears’ third receiver, and fourth option in the passing game behind D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze and Loveland. That’s an exciting nucleus, especially with a much improved offensive line. The Bears took two offensive linemen for depth in the draft as well, with tackle Ozzy Trapilo in the third round and guard Luke Newman in the sixth.
Start the jokes about the Bears winning another offseason championship, and that’s fair. Last season everyone gushed about the situation that Caleb Williams was going to, forgetting that offensive line and coaching matters too. The Bears went 5-12. But this offseason cleared up a lot of their issues.
If these Bears fall flat, there will be difficult questions that need to be answered, probably about Williams. Williams was up and down as a rookie but last year’s No. 1 overall pick showed flashes of massive upside. Now he has an offensive coach, Ben Johnson, to guide his career. He has a tremendous cast around him. If Williams doesn’t take a big step forward, the Bears should be very worried. Williams has a better setup around him than most NFL quarterbacks. Chicago got an absolute haul from the Carolina Panthers for the pick that became Bryce Young, and the Bears are taking advantage of that. The Burden pick was the last part of that trade.
Burden is a testament to the Bears’ depth on offense. He was a big recruit and had 1,212 yards two seasons ago for Missouri. His production tanked last season, perhaps due to poor quarterback play, and there are questions about whether he’s a good enough all-around receiver to be a difference maker in the NFL. But he’s an impressive talent for a WR3.
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If the Bears played in an easier division, talk of them winning a division title would be easier to buy. Detroit and Minnesota won 15 and 14 games last season, respectively. Green Bay won 11. It’s hard to leapfrog the Bears all the way to the front of the line, no matter how good of an offseason they’ve had.
But the Bears are building something fun. They’ll need Williams to do his part, but there should still be plenty of faith that he’ll make a jump in year two. Whether the Bears climb to the top of the division or not, they should be a blast to watch.
Quarterback Caleb Williams of the Chicago Bears should be looking for bigger and better things in 2025. (Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
(Todd Rosenberg via Getty Images)
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from day three of the NFL Draft:
WINNERS
Cardinals’ defense: The Arizona Cardinals came into the draft with a sufficient sense of self awareness about what they needed.
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The Cardinals defense has lacked talent from years, and the plan for this draft was to fix it. They drafted defensive tackle Walter Nolen in the first round, cornerback Will Johnson in the second round, edge rusher Jordan Burch in the third round, linebacker Cody Simon in the fourth round and cornerback Denzel Burke in the fifth round. That’s how you attack a weakness.
There isn’t a guarantee that all those picks work out. But if a few do, Jonathan Gannon will finally have some talent to work with in his defensive scheme.
Jalen Royals: In the third day of the draft, the most important thing for a prospect might be landing in the right situation. Royals had to be thrilled at his landing spot.
The Kansas City Chiefs took Royals near the end of the fourth round. Going to the fourth round might have been disappointing for Royals, a productive big-play receiver at Utah State. He was projected by some to be a second-day pick. But starting his career catching passes from Patrick Mahomes isn’t bad. The same can be said for SMU running back Brashard Smith, a talented back who might be a steal for Kansas City in the seventh round.
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The local baseball team liked the Royals pick for obvious reasons.
Royals has plenty of competition for reps in Kansas City, but he’s in a good offense and his talent is obvious. Royals might have fallen into a pretty good situation.
LOSERS
Browns’ crowded QB room: The Cleveland Browns are the NFL’s new lab experiment. We’ve seen a few teams take multiple shots at quarterback in hopes of ending up with the right answer, most notably last year’s Atlanta Falcons, but not to the extent that the Browns are doing.
Joe Flacco was signed under the presumption he’d be the starter. Kenny Pickett was acquired as a reclamation project. Dillon Gabriel was drafted in the third round. But Cleveland wasn’t done, making the most talked-about pick of the draft with Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round.
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For many years NFL teams have bent over backwards to assuage the egos of their quarterbacks, often avoiding making uncomfortable situations with competition. The Browns are going the opposite way. There might be some bad feelings in the Browns quarterback room, with so many of them vying for an opportunity. But the Browns are apparently willing to live with that.
Quinn Ewers: Since there was another quarterback fall that got all the attention, Ewers’ slide was a bit under the radar.
Unfortunately for the Texas quarterback, he waited while quarterbacks like Riley Leonard, Graham Mertz and Cam Miller from North Dakota State went in the sixth round instead of him. Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke went before him in the seventh. Finally, the Miami Dolphins selected Ewers in the seventh round.
Ewers had 9,128 yards and 68 touchdowns over three seasons with Texas, keeping Arch Manning on the bench and leading the Longhorns to the College Football Playoff. But questions about his physical tools, accuracy and injury history were working against him.
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Ewers probably expected a better result in the NFL Draft. Now he has to start working his way up.
Vikings’ defense: The Vikings are putting a lot of faith in their returning players, and defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
The Vikings were the last team in the 2025 NFL Draft to not take a defensive player. One problem is they had just four draft picks coming in. But the first was on guard Donovan Jackson and the second was on receiver Tai Felton. They finally did take a defensive player to star the fifth round with defensive tackle Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins.
There’s nothing wrong with continuing to provide J.J. McCarthy all the help he can get as he steps into the QB1 role. The Vikings did plenty throughout the offseason to help him out. But the defense had to wait.
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Nick Chubb: One of the unfortunate parts of the NFL Draft is plenty of veterans find out they have lost their spot to a new rookie.
The Browns reportedly haven’t shut the door on bringing back Chubb, an unrestricted free agent, but they used two valuable picks on running backs. They took Quinshon Judkins early in the second round and then Dylan Sampson in the fourth round. That’s a significant investment in the position, and probably means there won’t be room for Chubb. Given Chubb’s popularity in Cleveland, it’s a sad day if Chubb doesn’t come back.
There are other veterans around the league who couldn’t have been happy to see a rookie or two get drafted at their position. All they can do now is fight for their spot.
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