Column: Chicago Bears move to offense on Day 2, starting with Logan Jones as potential long-term fix at center

If Jones is the prospect the Bears believe he soon can be, and if safety Dillon Thieneman — the Round 1 pick — hits, the Bears have added core players. They don’t solve issues on the edge but they’re still at positions of need.

Coach Ben Johnson has made it clear how significant the center is, not just for quarterback Caleb Williams but for the outside-zone running attack, so setting the line up for the foreseeable future was an understandable priority.

The Bears had two more picks, adding Stanford tight end Sam Rosh and LSU wide receiver Zavion Thomas in Round 3 after trading away their second second-round choice at No. 60.

The coaches will have to get the players on the field and sort things out, but Jones’ draft status makes it clear he should challenge for a starting job sooner rather than later. This isn’t a Day 3 pick who everyone will be comfortable with being an understudy for a season.

One thing that makes Jones qualified: He ran outside zone for the last two seasons at Iowa for offensive coordinator Tim Lester, the Wheaton-Warrenville South product who was an analyst for the Green Bay Packers before joining Kirk Ferentz’s staff.

“Coming from the NFL here, running a ton of the wide-zone schemes, which is very common in the NFL and not as common in college, very fortunate,” Lester said. “I’ve been here two years — 26 games — and very fortunate I had him for all of them. I’ve had a guy that can run and reach and flatten a nose and climb to the second level. Super smart, tough. So, I have been spoiled in that regard.”

Jones started 51 games over the past four seasons after entering the Iowa program as a defensive tackle. He was limited to one game in 2021 with a knee injury, the final season Linderbaum starred for the Hawkeyes. Jones switched to center in the offseason, won the job and was the Rimington Trophy winner — given to the most outstanding center in college — and a captain for the line that won the Joe Moore Award, given to the best O-line in the land.

At 6-foot-2, 299 pounds, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.9 seconds. More importantly, he had a 1.75-second 10-yard split and high marks in the three-cone drill and shot shuttle.

“A man that big that can run like he runs, it just doesn’t happen,” Lester said. “He squats 700 pounds. Super smart. It’s unbelievable. In college you don’t necessarily have the quarterbacks that can handle a system quite like this. So, I put a lot on Logan.”

Column: 1st-round pick Dillon Thieneman gives the Chicago Bears a wealth of speed, range and disguise options

Johnson stressed just how much Dalman did for Williams and the offense as a whole last season, so it’s easy to imagine, at some point in the future, that kind of responsibility being given to Jones, who will turn 25 in October.

Director of player personnel Trey Koziol described Jones as relentless, a term that probably gets applied to more defensive guys than offensive.

“We talk about the mental stamina of that position to consistently — he’s got a lot on his plate in terms of doing mike IDs and all that stuff in the run game,” Koziol said. “They come from a really well-coached program there. So to be able to handle the cerebral side and keep the composure to handle that piece while combining it with the intensity, physicality and the relentless play, it’s rare to find that. A lot of times you might have one or the other. When you get a combination of those two, it’s really exciting to watch.”

Roush came next as an early-third-round pick at No. 69. He’s going to compete to be the third tight end in an offense that prioritized the role last season. Durham Smythe played 293 snaps in the regular season and another 42 in the playoffs.

Johnson leans heavily into the position, and the Bears figured to be in the market for a young addition to the room. It just so happened to be earlier than some imagined. He was the fifth tight end in a span of 16 picks after the Philadelphia Eagles made Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers the second tight end of the draft at No. 54.

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Roush boosted his stock with a strong combine, running the 40 in 4.7 seconds at 6-6, 267 pounds. He had a 38½-inch vertical jump, and one scout said a team would lean into the idea Roush could develop as a strong Y tight end with some receiving upside. Multidimensional tight ends aren’t necessarily easily found in the late rounds. Smythe, for instance, was a fourth-round pick.

Poles described Thomas as a Swiss Army knife on offense and legitimate threat in the return game, a guy Johnson and offensive coordinator Press Taylor can creatively use all over the place, including the backfield.

Other than Thieneman, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen is still waiting for some more options. The Bears have a fourth-, a fifth- and two seventh-round picks Saturday. Poles understands questions about not getting bodies on the defensive line. Part of it is living at the back of the round where you have to see what unfolds.

“Obviously we have one more day, so we can continue to add,” Poles said. “Multiple ways to add throughout the spring and training camp and during the season. It’s hard to go into a draft and just start picking at your needs and hop around the board and letting all the good guys go by just because of that.

“That doesn’t play out very well in the long haul. We stuck to the board. Every class is going to be different. But like I said, when you’re at the back of the round, it’s a little bit different than being at the top-five, top-10 picks like we have been.”