Building the Board: Investigating Interior Defenders

The Chicago Bears need a lot of help on their defensive line — last year they had one of the worst defensive lines in football, and while Justin Jones looked solid from time to time the play they got from their 3T and their 1T positions left too much to be desired.

Depending on how the 2nd round of the draft shakes out, the Bears will surely consider adding talent to their defensive interior — let’s break a few of their potential targets down.

For several months now, the WCG crew has been working hard on a simple idea: building a Chicago Bears draft board brick-by-brick in an attempt to create as authentic a draft board as possible while tailoring it specifically to one team (rather than the scheme-free evaluations that are so common around the internet).

We’ve been scouting the players available in the 2023 NFL Draft, and we’ll continue to do so, with the end game being a fully-fledged Draft Board. Today we talk through our next batch of player grades — specifically, these 10 Interior Defensive Linemen:

Remember, this list isn’t in order of quality/ranking! Simply order of appearance!

• Georgia’s Jalen Carter (And yes, this was recorded before his recent arrest)
• Baylor’s Siaki Ika
• Clemson’s Bryan Bresee
• USC’s Tuli Tuipulotu
• Wisconsin’s Keeanu Benton
• Michigan’s Mazi Smith
• Pitt’s Calijah Kancey
• Alabama’s Byron Young
• Bowling Green’s Karl Brooks
• Arizona State’s Nesta Jade Silvera

Our initial Draft Board (1.0) will be on a Google Document that we’ll share here as soon as it’s done, and keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks — we’ll be adding players to it in batches of 10 as we try to show the process of how draft boards shuffle week-by-week.

We’re excited! We want to hear your thoughts — do you agree with today’s grades? Do you disagree? Let us know!

Podcast version is available here:

And in case you missed the original introduction video for Building the Board, check it out below for an overview of the project!