With three weeks to go until the 2023 NFL Draft, Bears general manager Ryan Poles, head coach Matt Eberflus, and the rest of Halas Hall brain trust are hard at work putting the final touches on their board.
The roster holes for the Bears are obvious. The defensive line needs a severe injection of talent, both on the edge and in the middle. The Bears must find a starting-caliber offensive tackle in the first two rounds. The addition of DJ Moore made the wide receiver room less of an eyesore, but more weapons are needed.
Poles and Eberflus have a type. Like a man who exclusively dates blondes or a woman that won't drop below 6 feet, the Bears' power brokers like what they like.
As we sift through the smokescreens and mock draft noise to decipher where the Bears might go at No. 9 and on Days 2 and 3, Poles and Eberflus are shining a light on the players that have caught their eye.
Take a look at who the Bears have brought in for a top-30 visit, and a picture starts to form.
So far, the Bears have brought in several of the obvious candidates.
Jalen Carter visited Monday as the Bears look to gather as much information as possible about the Georgia star.
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Texas Tech edge rusher Tyree Wilson is visiting Halas Hall on Wednesday. Wilson is the prototypical Eberflus edge rusher. He's long, strong, and explosive. Wilson will likely be gone by the time the Bears go on the clock, but if he slides down the board, Eberflus will find it hard not to select him.
Ohio State offensive lineman Paris Johnson Jr., wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones are the other projected first-round picks the Bears have had top-30 visits with at this juncture.
All those visits were expected and don't offer too much insight into the Bears' process. They are open to trading down from No. 9. But if they make the pick there, it feels like Johnson or Jones will be the selection.
Carter's red flags are likely too much for the Bears to look past, and while Smith-Njigba is WR1 by a mile in this class, the Bears have more pressing needs to address.
But it's the other top-30 visits, those used on likely Day 2 and Day 3 picks, that have my attention.
Let's start with Virginia wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks, who will visit the Bears this week, per NFL Media's Tom Pelissero.
Wicks is a 6-foot-1, 206-pound receiver who fits what the Bears are looking for in their receivers. He's an explosive athlete with the instincts and speed to create separation and the length to make contested catches.
Wicks is an elusive runner with the ball in his hands. In 2021, Wicks gained 20 or more yards on 27 of 57 catches.
All that's great, but Wicks had a down year in 2022. He has struggled with drops during his career (14 in the last two seasons, per PFF), and his routes lack attention to detail.
But it's the physical traits that have Wicks on the Bears' board as a potential Day 3 target.
The next wide receiver to take a top-30 visit hits on a few other things the Bears love: versatility and a local connection.
Michigan State's Jayden Reed, a Naperville native, checks a lot of boxes as the Bears search to fill out their wide receiver room on Day 3. Reed can play multiple positions and return kicks and punts. He ran a 4.45 40 at the combine, can get up to his top speed in a hurry, and has excellent ball skills.
At 5-foot-11, Reed's size isn't ideal, but he's a hard-nosed receiver who makes winning plays.
Reed grew up a Bears fan. He was excited when the franchise selected quarterback Justin Fields and would jump at the opportunity to help the young signal-caller build the franchise back into a winner.
"I was really excited about them drafting Justin Fields," Reed said at the combine. "With me playing against him, I knew he was a great player. He's definitely going to change the franchise.
"I can create separation. He can find me easily due to me creating quick separation," Reed said of his potential connection with Fields. "I feel like I can take the top off the defense. He has a very strong arm where I can run under balls for him."
Next, we shift our focus to the trenches where the Bears will have to spend a majority of their draft capital.
Outside of Jones and Johnson, the Bears also have had visits with Maryland offensive tackle Jaelyn Duncan and Clemson guard Jordan McFadden. Northwestern's Peter Skoronski will be a local visit, so the Bears won't have to use a top-30 visit on him.
The Bears love athletic linemen who are experienced and have the versatility to move around.
McFadden was a three-year starter and team captain at Clemson, where he manned both tackle spots. Due to his height (6-foot-2) and length (34-inch arms), McFadden likely will kick inside to guard in the NFL.
McFadden is a good run-blocker who gets up to the second level easily. His pass protection experience at tackle is a bonus for a Bears team that needs depth on the line.
McFadden is a developmental lineman who has the potential to develop into an NFL starter.
The 6-foot-6, 306-pound Duncan was a four-year starter at tackle for Maryland. He has great lateral quickness and would be a great fit in the Bears' zone-run scheme. Duncan's 33 5/8 inch arms might force him to move to guard at the NFL, but he's a high-upside developmental lineman to look at late in Day 2 or Day 3.
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Our final stop on the top-30 whip-around is the defensive line.
The Bears have needs at edge rusher and defensive tackle, so it's understandable that Northwestern's Adetomiwa Adebawore is on their visit list.
Eberflus needs a three-technique to be "the engine" of his defense, and Adebawore is one of the best in the draft after Carter and Pittsburgh's Calijah Kancey.
Adebawore is an explosive athlete who blew people away at the combine. The Northwestern product ran a 4.49 40-yard dash at 282 pounds with a 1.61 10-yard split. He also posted a 37.5-inch vertical and 10-foot-5-inch broad jump.
He has the versatility to play outside and inside, perhaps manning the three-technique on first and second down before kicking out as a rush end on third down.
Adebawore would be a great fit in Eberflus' defense, but his rapid draft rise likely takes him out of the picture unless Poles engineers a move up into the top of the second round.
Another defensive tackle the Bears have hosted for a visit is Florida's Gervon Dexter Sr.
Dexter posted a 4.88 40-yard dash at 310 pounds with a vertical jump of 37 inches. At 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, he has the physical traits to be a quality starting defensive tackle in the NFL.
But Dexter is slow getting off the ball and lacks explosiveness as a pass rusher.
His physical traits make him a prime candidate to be a Day 3 target for the Bears, but he will take time to develop into the best version of himself at the NFL level.
The Bears still have several top-30 visits in their pocket. Some of the usual suspects likely will come through Halas Hall over the next week or two, with potential Day 2 and Day 3 targets sprinkled into that group.
Every NFL team prioritizes different things when it comes to prospect evaluation.
Some teams defer to players with proven production at the college level or those who come from and found success at blue-blood programs. The Jon Gruden-Mike Mayock Raiders were addicted to players that played in big games on Saturdays and performed under those bright lights.
But other teams are drawn to the unreachable. Traits draw them in, and, no matter what the production history says, they believe they can mold those traits into an effective NFL player.
Poles and Eberflus appear to fall more into the third category than the first two. At least, that's what most of their top-30 visits are telling us.
How the Bears use the remainder of their visits will continue to give us a slight glimpse into the types of players they value and their strategy for what is a critical draft in the early stages of a rebuild.