Daniel Jeremiah held his annual conference call about the NFL Combine, during which he shared nuggets about several prospects and fielded some questions specific to the Chicago Bears.
Yesterday, the NFL Network’s Lead Draft Analyst Analyst, Daniel Jeremiah, held his annual Conference Call with the media about the NFL Combine and the 2025 NFL Draft. He talked about several prospects, some options teams have, and he fielded a few questions specifically about the Chicago Bears.
I’ll spotlight some of his general thoughts of a few of the players that have been mocked to the Bears recently but also his Bears takes.
He was asked about the Georgia prospects — as usual, there are a bunch — and considering a mock draft recently had the Bears taking one of them, here’s what he had to say about defensive end Mykel Williams.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I just wish we could have seen him healthy. If he doesn’t get hurt in that Clemson game and we see him at full strength, I think we’re talking about him as another top 10 lock who has a lot of freaky qualities to him, freaky traits to him. He can really get off the ball. He’s got a lot of power and violence as a rusher. He can set the edge. It’s just a perfection. Hasn’t been great, but that’s because the guy wasn’t healthy all year long, and they still roll guys through there.
Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham has been mocked to the Bears at 10, and here’s his take on Graham.
DJ: He’s so fun. I watched him on tape and I fell in love with him, and then I got a chance to go to their game against Oregon. A bunch of personnel guys and GMs down on the field. We’re walking down there, and I see Mason Graham walk by. Of course, he is next to Kenneth Grant, his teammate, who it looks like he’s a cartoon character. He’s an Adonis how big he is.
I’m looking at Mason Graham and body type, and I’m, like, gosh, maybe I need to adjust my grade. Maybe I’m just too high on this guy. Then I proceeded to watch the game, and I was, like, nope, nope, he’s just really, really good. So I hope people don’t overthink it with him as we get to the spring and kind of the further we get away from football, but he’s got crazy, elite leverage, balance, and instincts.
You can see there’s a wrestling background there. He’s just never on the ground. He gets underneath guys. I just wrote down when I was looking at my notes, I had “block destruction” written down so many different times. He’s just a real aggressive player who has got instincts and can dominate the game against the run, and I think has more to offer as a pass rusher.
Jeremiah was asked a Bears-specific question regarding the offensive line, and as an FYI, earlier this week, he mocked Texas’ Kelvin Banks to the Bears.
Q. It’s obviously offensive line season here in Chicago, so I wanted to ask you first about Kelvin Banks specifically at the tackle position, what you see in him. Then with [Grey] Zabel, I know you like his versatility, but what are some of the things on his team and his Senior Bowl performance that jumped out at you?
DJ: With Banks, just I love the fact that he is 320 pounds. He is thick. He is sturdy. He can bend; he is athletic enough to really sink and bend. He keeps his hands in tight. He plays with patience. The stuff that he gets in trouble with is sometimes he sets a little bit deep, and then he ends up getting in some trouble that way when he kind of creates more runway.
I think if he could be a little more firm and not get in quite as much depth in his set that he will be able to solve that problem. Then in the run game I just want to do see him show a little bit more strain and finish, just a little bit more nasty to him in the run game.
But he’s a good athlete. He’s someone that I think can play. I think even though he’s not the tallest guy in the world, I still think he can hold up and play tackle no problem, and I think he could be hell on wheels as a guard. That’s Banks.
Then when you look at Grey Zabel, man, the week of practice, there were not many bad reps at all during the week of practice for him. In the game it got on his edges a little bit as he is kind of moving around playing all these different positions, but he is someone, again, that has really good balance. He’s always under control. He’s never on the ground. He’s got strong hands. He’s really aware in terms of seeing things and picking things up.
He’s just a guy who has played a lot of football who is polished and answered some of the smaller school questions at the Senior Bowl even though North Dakota State has been a school that’s pumped out a lot of linemen. I’m a huge fan of his, and I think he’s definitely in the mix to go in the first round.
Running back seems like a position the Bears will target eventually, so here’s what Jeremiah had to say about Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo and his rise up draft boards.
DJ: Well, he’s a unique player. Just when you watch him — obviously the incredible run that he went on, but I was looking at my notes on him when I was putting this stuff in last night from my notebook. He just chooses violence. I don’t know if I have ever seen a more aggressive runner who just seeks out contact and who can absorb contact.
When I was looking for a comp for him, my first thought was, okay, he is like a shrunk down James Connor. I was like, gosh, more of anything he reminds me of a Plinko chip from The Price is Right bouncing off everything and everybody.
The thing with him is we know he can catch it. We know obviously the vision, the balance, the toughness. The only question is going to be the top speed. If he has a chance, I think to me he looked like he would probably be a low 4.6 guy. If he would run in the 4.5s, that would be great. That would really help himself out. He is such a fun player to watch. Whoever gets him is going to have one of the most aggressive and physical runners that we’ve seen in the last few years. He’s a fun one.
A Browns reporter asked Jeremiah about this running back class and who would be a good fit for Cleveland’s wide-zone scheme. Ben Johnson’s Bears offense will not be specific to a wide zone, but it will be part of his playbook, which is why I wanted to include his response here.
DJ: Sure. Yeah, again, I’ve mentioned the depth of this running back class. The first one that just popped right into my head is Kaleb Johnson from Iowa, someone who I just think is that one cut, foot in the ground, speed and go. He’s got excellent vision. He’s not going to be a real, like, nifty in and out guy. He is just going to see it and go. He has burst, and he has long speed. That would be the first one that kind of popped into my mind.
Other ones, [Omarion] Hampton obviously would fit into that as a big, explosive guy. I think he is a little more loose than Johnson. That would fit there as well. There’s Dylan Sampson; not the biggest guy in the world. Kind of undersized out of Tennessee, but he, again, can get to the perimeter and get north and south. He has got big-time, big-time bursts. I don’t think he will time as fast as he plays, but he plays plenty fast. Those are guys that jump out to me.
The two Ohio State guys can play with [Quinshon] Judkins and [TreVeyon] Henderson and with those two individually. Judkins is like a finisher. You watch the end of the Penn State game, he is their four minute back and he just salts the game away. He has got balance, strength, power. Passing game-wise more screens, checkdown type; whereas Henderson is one of the best pass protecting backs that I’ve evaluated. He is exceptional in that regard. Then he can run routes. He can pluck it, and he can hit home runs out of the back field. He is not quite as good of a dirty runner inside as Judkins is, but definitely a home run hitter who in that system, again, stretch and then get up the field and use your speed and be a factor in the passing game. Trayvon Henderson is outstanding. I could go on.
There is a bunch of backs. Third round type. Probably third, fourth round for someone like Trevor Etienne is another one that I like. It’s a long list.
Here’s another Chicago-centric question.
Q. If Tyler Booker is able to go to Chicago, what could he — how could he be beneficial to that Chicago team?
DJ: Booker, with the Bears, it’s the biggest need the Bears have when you look at them offensive line-wise, they have got to be better. They’ve got to be more firm up the middle. That’s Booker’s calling card as to how he can set his anchor and is just a strong, firm presence there, as well as someone who’s so smart and bright and aware.
I like the fact, when you have a young quarterback in Caleb Williams, surrounding him everywhere with as many smart players as you can, I just think that helps in a big way. That doesn’t necessarily have to be just veterans. It can be with really, really smart young players, and that’s what Booker is. I think that fits and solves a lot of their problems there.
Another Bears question and this one calls back Jeremiah’s evaluation of wideout Rome Odunze last year.
Q. Two Bears questions here. First one, do you think they’ll have their pick of choosing for the offensive linemen available in the draft? And second of all, when you look back at Rome Odunze, he didn’t have the best of years last year, do you still project him to be the top talent you were projecting him to be last year?
DJ: I don’t have any concerns about him. I think he’s going to be really, really good. Obviously there’s issues up front offensive line-wise, and there’s a lot of mouths to feed there. I’m excited about Ben Johnson coming in there. I’m excited about him getting to really have an opportunity to take off there. Caleb is going to be better. I just think everything else around him is going to be better. When I watch the tape, I still see somebody that can get open. I still see somebody that can make plays, and I think you’ll see him. His makeup is so good and the talent’s there. I don’t really worry about him going forward.
When you look at where they’re picking, do they get their first crack at an offensive lineman? Yeah, there’s some teams ahead of them that can pull the trigger, so I think that’s TBD, but I do think the fact that their need being along the interior, I think they’re going to have their pick of interior guys. I know it’s not the sexiest thing in the world. I know people don’t want to get super excited about taking a guard with the 10th pick, but if you watched the Bears play last year, you might be excited about taking a guard at the 10th pick.
You can listen to Jeremiah’s media call on his podcast here, where he gets into a bunch more on specific players, depth at position groups, and more: