As a result of three draft-day trades, Chicago made eight selections in this year’s draft—Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III, Ozzy Trapilo, Shemar Turner, Ruben Hyppolite II, Zah Frazier, Luke Newman and Kyle Monangai.
Here’s what you need to know about each pick the Bears made ahead of rookie minicamp, which kicks off Friday.
Heading into the 2025 NFL draft, if the Bears were going to take a tight end with their pick at No. 10, many NFL talking heads around the country (me included) thought Chicago would go with Penn State’s Tyler Warren.
But after the selection was made and Bears followers watched Loveland’s tape, it’s clear he is a better fit for Ben Johnson’s offense.
Loveland, who Johnson openly compared to standout Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta, profiles as a split-out tight end tasked with creating mismatches in the passing game (either in-line or in the slot) against linebackers and nickels, much like how Johnson deployed LaPorta when he was the offensive coordinator of the Lions.
LaPorta set a then-NFL rookie tight end record for catches in 2023 (86), on the way to a 889-yard, 10-TD catch performance his rookie year.
Loveland should still see plenty of offensive snaps in 2025 as well, even with Cole Kmet already solidified as the team’s No. 1 tight end. According to Sumer Sports, the Detroit Lions were in 12 personnel during 32.2% of their offensive plays in 2024, trailing only the Kansas City Chiefs (33.9%) and the Las Vegas Raiders (35.5%).
Many anticipated running back to be a target of the Bears in the second round, but after TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins came off the board ahead of their pick at No. 39, Ryan Poles and Johnson pivoted toward picking an offensive weapon at a different position.
Luther Burden III had a first-round grade from several NFL draft media outlets, but fell into Chicago’s lap in the top half of the second round, likely from concerns surrounding his production falloff from 2023 to 2024 at Missouri.
In 2023, Burden caught 86 passes for 1,212 yards and nine TD catches. A year later, he had 61 catches for 676 yards and six TD catches.
Burden profiles as a big-bodied slot receiver at six feet even and 206 pounds. He’s an explosive athlete in space with sneaky good ball tracking skills that should immediately become the Bears’ No. 3 wide receiver.
With their third pick of the draft after trading out of No. 41, Chicago took Boston College offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo at No. 56.
At 6-foot-8-inches tall and weighing in at 316 pounds with 33-inch arms, Trapilo has the size, strength and the anchoring ability to play either tackle position for the Bears, where ever they may need him.
Trapilo was a three-year starter, team captain and first team All-ACC selection in 2024 for the Eagles.
According to Bleacher Report’s Brandon Thorn, Trapilo is a skilled all-around run blocker with a firm understanding of timing and spacing that allow him to consistently navigate combos and doubles to cover up his target and secure the first level before hitting the second.
In pass protection, Thorn said Trapilo is an active, independent hand fighter that keeps his hands low, while doing a good job of playing long after his initial strike with his head out of the block to widen the edge. Given his size, he has also developed a strong anchor against opposing bull rushes.
At pick No. 62, Chicago took defensive lineman Shemar Turner out of Texas A&M.
Turner profiles as a three-technique interior lineman, but showed a bunch of positional versatility for the Aggies last year. He lined up everywhere from the nose to the outside edge in the four, five and even seven-techniques.
Statistically speaking, Turner was a three-year starter who clocked 43 games played across four years in college station, where he collected 24 tackles for loss and ten sacks in his college career.
His best college season came in 2023 when he notched 11 tackles for loss and six sacks across 12 games. In 2024, Turner registered six tackles for loss and two sacks across the same sample size.
According to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, “With his active motor and body quickness, Turner finds ways to pierce gaps and affect the backfield action. He has a strong, explosive grip to snatch and displace blockers in the run game, although he can be a liability at times when he abandons his gap or fails to break down and finish.
“Much will be made of his overzealous tendencies, which draw attention from officials, but as one scout described him: ‘He’s the type you want on your side.’ Overall, Turner needs to introduce more discipline to his play style, but he prides himself on being the aggressor and relies on his initial twitch, fierce hands and combative mentality to be a factor. He projects best as a penetrating one-gap tackle.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Bears’ 2025 NFL draft cycle, several NFL draft experts were puzzled by Chicago’s selection of Hyppolite in the fourth round.
Just one example, Bugler gave Hyppolite an undrafted free agent grade and had him ranked as his no. 35 linebacker in this year’s draft class. Hyppolite was also the first player selected in the draft who was not invited to the NFL Scouting Combine back in February.
While his reputation ahead of the draft was fairly under the radar, what isn’t—at least in the eyes of the Bears’ coaching staff—is his speed and maturity.
Hyppolite, who stands 5-foot-11-inches tall and weighs in at 236 pounds, clocked a 4.42 40-yard dash at his Maryland Pro Day and wowed coaches with a straight-forward mindset.
“It was a great ’30’ visit,” Dennis Allen told Bears.com senior writer Larry Mayer. “He’s mature, he’s self-aware about who he is as a football player. We went into the draft saying we have to try to increase our athleticism and speed, and he certainly does that at the linebacker position.
“You spend some time with these guys and you kind of get a feel for what their personality is going to be like. He’s got a serious personality and he’s kind of got a pro’s mentality already, and that’s a good starting point.”
Hyppolite has held himself to a high standard going back to his MacArthur and American Heritage High School days.
“I think he’s mentally ready,” said Pierre Senatus, who coached Hyppolite at MacArthur his senior year, in a 2019 article for the Baltimore Sun. “Man-strength as an 18-year-old going up against a 21, 22-year-old can be different at times. But talk about a young man who’s going to meet the challenge in the weight room. The strength and conditioning staff is going to have a great time.
“The kid is going to hit all the marks and go beyond. … He has the mindset of a professional athlete as a teenager.”
Hyppolite notched 236 combined tackles and 13 tackles for loss across five seasons as a Terrapin. Pedestrian numbers for an inside linebacker, but his speed, maturity and intellect are all traits valued by Allen, leading him and Chicago’s coaching staff to believe Hyppolite can develop into a valuable piece inside their linebacker room.
Having the right mindset was an underlying theme among the Bears’ draft selections on the defensive side of the ball, UTSA corner Zah Frazier included, who started off his college football career downstate.
“What stood out to me was his thirst for knowledge,” Allen said. “He understands he doesn’t have the whole picture quite yet, so just the willingness to want to work to get better and understand what we’re doing from a defensive standpoint.”
After being an all-region selection his senior year at Cedartown High School in Northwest Georgia near the Alabama border, Frazier played his freshman year of college football at Southern Illinois University before transferring to Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.
While at Coffeyville, Frazier became a JUCO All-American and eventually landed with the Roadrunners in San Antonio, despite a number of SEC offers. His senior year, he led the American Athletic Conference with a school-record six interceptions and earned first-team ALL-AAC honors.
“He’s got really good ball skills,” Allen said. “He’s got speed, he’s got size, he’s got length. Those are all three things that we value really at any position on our defense but in particular at the corner position.”
Chicago lists Frazier as 6-foot-3-inches and weighing 186 pounds. If he continues to fill out his frame, he could be another corner on the Bears’ roster with the ability to play fast and physical on defense and special teams.
Newman hopped on Chicago’s radar after the East-West Shrine Bowl, where he put his positional versatility on display, logging reps at both guard positions and center during practice sessions.
“It was really just, ‘Hey Luke, we’re going to try you out at right guard, we’ll give you looks at center, and then obviously left guard as well,” Newman said. “‘You’re just going to have a chance to come here and compete at a high level and also show why you think you’re a valuable player at the next level.'”
Coming out of Brother Rice High School in Detroit’s northern suburbs, Newman was an undersized offensive line recruit who only received scholarship offers from two FCS schools—Holy Cross in Massachusetts and Lafayette in Pennsylvania.
He chose Holy Cross, where Newman honed his skills and added weight to his frame on the way to becoming a two-time All-American at the FCS level. He spent three seasons in Worcester and graduated a year early with a bachelor’s degree in Economics before transferring to Michigan State, the alma mater of both his parents and only an hour’s drive from home, for his final year of college eligibility.
Newman started all 12 games he played in for the Spartans and logged 739 offensive snaps on the way to being named All-Big Ten Honorable Mention by both coaches and the media.
Overall, he played in 52 collegiate games over the course of five seasons, starting 49 consecutive games his last four seasons (37 at left tackle at Holy Cross and 12 at left guard for MSU).
After being drafted by the Bears, Newman revealed he grew up a Lions fan and is stoked to join a roster led by Detroit’s former offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson.
“I love him man. I was grateful to come down to Chicago for a visit and meet with coach Johnson and his staff,” Newman said. “He loves to win. He loves to grind. He’s just the ultimate competitor and someone you would really hope is your coach. I’m just really excited to play for that guy.
“He’s had a lot of success in Detroit and I think he’ll carry that over big time here in Chicago.”
Newman profiles as a depth piece along the interior of the Bears’ offensive line, where he will have the opportunity to compete for a roster spot and learn behind newly acquired veterans Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson and Drew Dalman.
Chicago addressed a noted position of need with their final pick of the 2025 NFL draft, Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai.
While watching the Bears wait until the seventh round to take a running back disappointed some fans back in Chicago, Ryan Poles still got solid value out of the pick, given how deep the 2025 running back class was.
Monangai is a powerful runner in between the tackles with a knack for finishing games and maintaining ball security.
In four seasons toting the rock for the Scarlett Knights, Monangai amassed 669 carries for 3,221 yards and 27 TD runs, all the while not coughing up a single fumble.
According to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, his 669 rushes without a fumble are the most by any FBS player since 2021 (Monangai’s redshirt freshman year), and more than 40% of his total yards in 2023 came in the fourth quarter of games.
His ascension to star running back of Piscataway, New Jersey, wasn’t an overnight feat, though. At first, Monangai sat behind current Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco in 2021. Then in 2022, Monangai took over the reins as Rutgers’ first-string running back, leading the Scarlett Knights in rushing yards (445) before taking a gargantuan leap during his junior and senior seasons.
During his last two years at Rutgers, Monangai tallied back-to-back 1,200-plus yard seasons where he notched eight and 13 TD runs a piece.
In an article for NorthJersey.com, then Scarlett Knights head coach Greg Schiano said Monangai always diligently prepared for games off the field, in both the weight and film room, and that diligence paid off on gameday.
Christian Dremel, Monangai’s teammate at Rutgers and Don Bosco Prep in high school, got a front row seat to watch Monangai’s ascent years before Schiano. In his eyes, Monangai has been the same punishing back since youth football.
“Literally if you put film on from when he was in eighth grade,” Dremel told NorthJersey.com. “It probably looks pretty similar to how he runs the ball now.”
But Dremel did echo Schiano’s sentiments on Monangai’s work ethic.
“He’s highly intelligent, not only as a football player but as a person,” Dremel said. “Off the field, he’s a really smart guy. In the meeting room, he’s highly intelligent and his football knowledge and IQ is definitely really high. But his work ethic is second to none.”
The Bears rushing attack ranked 25th in 2024 in yards per game—102.0. While D’Andre Swift is entrenched as Chicago’s No. 1 back, Monangai—along with Roschon Johnson, Travis Homer and Ian Wheeler—will have every opportunity to carve out a role in the Bears’ backfield.
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