The Bears hold the 25th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and the conventional move is to sit on it and take the best available player. On Monday’s BN Bears Podcast, Luis Medina, Matt Rooney, and I did exactly that first, and then we asked a more interesting question: should they?

We ran the simulation twice on PFF’s Mock Draft Simulator. The first time, we stayed put at 25 and worked through who might realistically be on the board.

Names like Ohio State defensive interior Kayden McDonald, Clemson’s Peter Woods, and Alabama left tackle Kadyn Proctor came up as realistic options. We landed on McDonald, and it wasn’t a difficult conversation. His run-stopping ability on early downs is exactly the kind of thing the Bears lacked last season, and he’s a player all three of us came away liking. If Chicago is on the clock at 25 and McDonald is there, that’s a defensible pick.

But then we traded back. And honestly? The second simulation made a pretty compelling case that more capital is the right call here.

Here’s how it unfolded.

Why Trading Back From No. 25 Makes a Lot of Sense for the Bears in This Draft

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