Key Takeaways From the Bears’ Final Media Session Before the 2026 NFL Draft

Jeff King has been with the Chicago Bears' organization for 12 years, but this will be the first year he is in the assistant general manager role alongside general manager Ryan Poles.

With the new title come different responsibilities, such as addressing the media at a pre-draft meeting.

After Poles gave a brief opening statement on Tuesday afternoon at Halas Hall, King took the floor and answered a series of questions revolving around the 2026 NFL Draft.

Here are three takeaways from King's press conference.

Limited centers

The Bears have veteran center Garrett Bradbury under contract for the 2026 NFL season, but there isn't a long-term answer at the position. The 2026 Draft class could present some solutions for the Bears' offensive line.

Except there is one issue.

“There's not very many of them," King said. "I think that the thing that you're starting to see now is guys staying in school longer. This is really across all positions, but it really comes into play at center. They're staying in school longer. There's less of them coming out in the draft. You saw (Raiders C Tyler) Linderbaum get his deal. They're just getting harder and harder to find. I don't know if they're getting developed and cross-trained as much in college as they maybe used to be, but it's definitely something that we've talked about is there's a little bit of a limited supply coming out of college now.”

During the draft process, the Bears have met with Kansas State's Sam Hecht and Kentucky's Jager Burton for 30 visits, so the Bears are doing their homework on the limited players at the position.

Age is just a number

With players transferring and staying in college longer, there will be older prospects. That's something NFL organizations will have to adjust to each time teams begin preparing for the annual draft.

“I think that's going to become more the norm, right?," Kind said. "With NIL, five-for-five probably coming, and the way guys are going back to school, we're going to probably have to think about that more and more. I think the last three years it's gone up every year of guys coming in the league at 24, 25. I think it's case to case, though. How much tread is on the tires? How did they play? What's their journey like? Have they had injuries? I think it's always case to case, but something that we'll definitely have to deal with going forward.”