{"id":469621,"date":"2026-02-15T06:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/469621\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T06:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:21:08","slug":"chicago-bears-have-two-names-theyre-willing-to-trade-up-for-in-1st-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/469621\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears Have Two Names They’re Willing To Trade Up For In 1st Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right now, the Chicago Bears<\/a> hold the #25 pick in the 1st round of the upcoming 2026 NFL draft. It is expected that they will stay there. After all, Bears general manager Ryan Poles has never traded up in the 1st round since taking over. He\u2019s traded down twice. Both occurred in 2023, first moving down from #1 overall to #9, and then from #9 to #10. The Bears have remained fixed in place over the past two drafts, taking Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze with their original picks, and then Colston Loveland last year.<\/p>\n

However, it is never wise to underestimate Poles. He\u2019s willing to be aggressive when the time feels right. This could be the year. Chicago is coming off a playoff trip and was an overtime away from the NFC Championship. If they can land a true difference-maker in this draft, it might push them over the top. People close to the situation inside Halas Hall informed SM that two players in this class have Poles and the coaching staff excited. So much so that if either falls to a certain point in the 1st round, they will make calls to trade up.<\/p>\n

Pass rushers David Bailey of Texas Tech and Rueben Bain Jr. of Miami.<\/p>\n

NameSeasonsSacksTFLsFFsDavid Bailey4294210Rueben Bain Jr.320.533.54The Chicago Bears\u2019 excitement is well-founded.<\/p>\n

Bailey has dominated the college ranks for his entire career, and 2025 was his best season. He is ready for the NFL, and draft experts see a player tailor-made for today\u2019s game. Some have compared him to Nik Bonitto, the Denver Broncos\u2019 star edge rusher. He is incredibly quick, agile, explosive, and flexible. His natural instincts for hunting the quarterback show up on every play. The one concern with him is his size. He\u2019s 6\u20193 and 250 lbs, making him somewhat average, which is why many project him as more of an outside linebacker.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd25 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel<\/a> to hear Chicago legends tell stories you\u2019ve never seen in headlines \u2014 real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.<\/p>\n

As for Bain, he was the focal point of Miami\u2019s ferocious defense that carried them to the national championship game. He\u2019s violent, heavy-handed, powerful, and has more speed than you\u2019d think. He can move inside and outside, hunting for matchups. Getting trained by Hall of Famer Jason Taylor hasn\u2019t hurt. His knowledge of the art is obvious from every snap. It comes down to whether teams can look past his short arms, which are reportedly 30 to 31 inches.<\/p>\n

Could Bailey or Bain fall?<\/p>\n

Pass rushers historically go early in the 1st round. Such is the nature of playing arguably the most important position in the sport outside of quarterback. After crunching some numbers, the average mock draft position for Bailey has been around the 5th pick. Everybody expects him to go in the top 10 with a good chance of cracking the top 5. Bain sits at the 9th pick. That means there is at least a possibility he slips out of the top 10. Beyond that, it\u2019s uncertain how far down the board he goes.<\/p>\n

This also depends on how aggressive the Chicago Bears are willing to be. Let\u2019s say they offer up their 2nd round pick packaged with #25. Based on trade value charts, the best they could probably do is the 15th overall pick. Unless something changes in the next two months, it seems unlikely either player will slip that far. That means either the Bears are out of luck, or they\u2019ve have to add more to the package to get higher. Poles has never given up more than a 2nd for anything in a trade before.<\/p>\n

Are Bailey or Bain worth it? Given how badly this team needs a dynamic pass rusher and how good both were in college, the case isn\u2019t difficult to make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right now, the Chicago Bears hold the #25 pick in the 1st round of the upcoming 2026 NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-469621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}