{"id":646954,"date":"2026-05-03T13:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/646954\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:05:10","slug":"what-the-nfl-draft-told-us-about-ben-johnsons-real-plan-for-the-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/646954\/","title":{"rendered":"What the NFL Draft Told Us About Ben Johnson’s Real Plan for the Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bears had an interesting Day 2 of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> that told us a lot about what head coach Ben Johnson plans on doing with his offense in 2026.<\/p>\n

Instead of going with defensive picks, the Bears opted to go with three offensive players<\/a> in center Logan Jones, tight end Sam Roush and wide receiver Zavion Thomas.<\/p>\n

But the selection of Roush<\/a> was the most telling. It was surprising on the surface because the Bears already have two good tight ends in Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland. <\/p>\n

But when you dig a bit deeper, this wasn’t just a future succession plan for Kmet. The plan was to add a more well-rounded tight end in order to improve Chicago’s 13 personnel package, which we believe Johnson will be running a lot more in 2026.<\/p>\n

What is 13 personnel?\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar, 13 personnel is when a team deploys one running back, one wide receiver and three tight ends.<\/p>\n

In 2024, we saw the Pittsburgh Steelers utilizing the formation at a league-high clip of 16.37%<\/a>, according to Sumer Sports. But Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> blew that rate out of the water last season, utilizing the 13 personnel grouping at a whopping 30.48% rate.<\/p>\n

The 13 personnel formation is a great formation to run out of with there being three bigger-bodied tight ends on the field to block in place of one or two more wide receivers. If a team can establish the run out of it and all three of those tight ends are good pass-catchers, that is going to make the grouping even tougher to defend.<\/p>\n

The Bears and 13 personnel\"Chicago<\/p>\n

Chicago Bears tight ends Colston Loveland (84) and Cole Kmet (85). | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Bears used 13 personnel 8.52% of the time last season. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, Chicago’s usage increased as the year went on. Even at that rate, the Bears utilized 13 personnel more often than all but four teams.<\/p>\n

We know Kmet and Loveland are both good pass-catchers and blockers, checking the two boxes teams want for 13 personnel. Roush fits the mold of being the kind of well-rounded tight end that is an ideal fit for the formation, too.<\/p>\n

At Stanford, Roush posted 334 receiving yards and two scores in 2024, and then had his best collegiate season as a pass-catcher in 2025, going for 545 yards. <\/p>\n

And, as you’d expect with a massive 6-foot-6, 267-pound tight end, Roush is a good blocker, too<\/a>. Lance Zierlein of NFL.com explained Roush’s versatile skill set in his scouting report.<\/p>\n

“In a draft landscape full of pass-catching tight ends, Roush stands out as one of the few plug-and-play \u201cY\u201d tight ends (in-line blocking TE) available,” Zierlein said. “He can make cut-off blocks in zone and combo blocks in gap schemes. He holds his own in pass protection, too. As a receiver, he\u2019s not stiff, but he lacks elusiveness underneath. He needs to apply more of his tough playing style to win combat catches and expand his role beyond run blocker\/zone beater.”<\/p>\n

We also have this quote from an unnamed executive who told The Athletic’s Mike Sando<\/a> that the Bears’ rushing attack is going to be even tougher with Roush now in the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cChicago was really good in the run game this past year, and to get Roush to play tight end, damn, they are going to be able to run some strong-side runs,\u201d an unnamed exec told Mike Sando of The Athletic after the draft. \u201cThis guy can block all the defensive ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Roush, Kmet and Loveland, and with a ground game that was the third-best in the NFL last season, the Bears have a real chance to create nightmares for opposing defenses by utilizing more 13 personnel in 2026.<\/p>\n

And, in turn, it helps make things a bit easier for Caleb Williams and a Chicago wide receiver group that doesn’t have a ton of experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bears had an interesting Day 2 of the 2026 NFL Draft that told us a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-646954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}