One of the Chicago Bears’ most intriguing selections in their 2026 draft class was their last one, sixth-round defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg. Van den Berg was a bit overlooked coming into the draft, and also was the only defensive lineman that Chicago drafted, a major area of need for the defense this offseason.
While defensive coordinator Dennis Allen will have his work cut out for him in turning around a defense that certainly needed it, he’s not going to have many new additions along the defensive line.
Following the draft, several coaches on the Bears staff mentioned their confidence and excitement in believing they have the talent to be a successful defense, as well as knowing they have to do a better job coaching those players. Preparing for his first opportunity to work with van den Berg, Allen said the football character of the rookie jumps off the tape.
“He was one of these guys that for whatever reason, throughout the draft, kind of slipped through the cracks a little bit and sometimes that stuff happens,” Allen said. “He was a player that our scouting staff brought to us. And primarily our defensive line coaches, watched the tape and came to me and they were like, ‘Just do me this one favor. Watch this 60-play cutup on this player’. So when you watch the 60-play cutup, when you’re going through the draft process, there’s a lot of ‘what this guy can’t do’.
“Alright, well, we tried to focus on what this guy can do, and when you watch that 60-play cut up of the things that this player can do, it was pretty impressive. Just the movement, the skills, the power, the athleticism, the effort, the toughness, like all those things, the football character. I keep saying that the football character bled off the tape to us. He was a guy that we thought, ’Man, this guy really fits into what we want to do. So there’s certainly a lot of things that he still has to improve on. But there’s a skillset there, and there’s a football character there that we were excited about working with.”
From the way Allen and the coaching staff have already discussed van den Berg, there seems to be plenty of optimism and excitement for a rookie that may get a chance to crack the lineup. Behind Gervon Dexter and Grady Jarrett, the Bears need to find more defensive tackle depth, hoping to do so with this year’s sixth-round selection, and have an intriguing second-year player in Shemar Turner coming back from injury.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Dennis Allen discusses intrigue of Bears rookie Jordan van den Berg
Reporting by Mike Pendleton, Bears Wire / Bears Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
