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The Charter: A Chicago Bears Podcast

Bears Draft Recap

The Charter: A Chicago Bears Podcast

Chicago Sports Network

Sports, Football, Sports:football

4.4699 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ruthie Polinsky and Clay Harbor break down the Bears’ full 2026 NFL Draft class, diving into whether this group meaningfully upgrades the roster heading into the season. The conversation starts in the trenches with second-round center Logan Jones and how he fits alongside Garrett Bradbury, before shifting to third-round tight end Sam Roush and what his arrival means for the Bears’ evolving TE room. They also explore how head coach Ben Johnson’s vision shapes these selections and the ways these rookies could be deployed in his system. The episode continues with a closer look at playmakers and value picks, including wide receiver Zavion Thomas and what he brings to the offense, plus cornerback Malik Muhammad, who is already drawing “steal of the draft” buzz, and fifth round linebacker Keyshaun Elliot. The duo also discuss the Bears trading up for defensive tackle Jordan Van Den Berg and whether he could develop into a future surprise contributor. Ruthie shares what she would have done differently, while Clay wraps things up with his overall takeaways from a draft class that could define the next phase of the roster.

Transcript

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0:00.0

A one, a two, one, two, three.

0:09.0

It's the charter, charter, charter podcast, the charter podcast with Ruthie and Clay.

0:16.0

Damn, my voice wasn't warmed up there.

0:19.0

That was beautiful, thank. Welcome back to the charter podcast brought to you by St. Xavier University.

0:23.6

I'm Ruthie Polinsky, back with Clay Harbor.

0:26.6

And what a weekend it was.

0:28.6

Clay, we were doing so much together the last couple days before the weekend.

0:33.6

I was like, Sunday.

0:35.6

I'm like, I was missing you.

0:36.6

I'm like, where's Clay? We had so much fun in our group chat. I'm excited to sort of bring that out into

0:43.8

the world today, let people in on some of our thoughts. Obviously, we did a big episode with

0:49.6

David Hall on Thursday, recapping the Thinaman pick, which was so exciting for so many different reasons,

0:56.1

and I still think people are feeling that excitement on Monday.

0:59.3

I do think the overall vibe of the Bears draft has certainly shifted, as it tends to do, right?

1:05.9

As the player, maybe you're a little bit more uncertain about those later round picks.

1:10.6

But today we're going to focus mostly on the non-thenaman picks, but... maybe you're a little bit more uncertain about those later round picks.

1:16.0

But today we're going to focus mostly on the non-thenaman picks since we did do that episode on Thursday.

1:16.6

So make sure you go check that out if you want our sort of immediate reaction to Dylan

1:20.6

Thineman, the bear selecting him 25th overall.

1:24.7

Clay, we will break down each and every player that the Bears took because I know

1:28.3

you've watched a lot of tape and have studied them and have, especially this weekend,

1:33.3

dove into some of those late-round guys.

...

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