Like many NFL teams, the Chicago Bears are deep into the NFL Draft process with over a month to go until it begins.
As part of that long process, the team schedules what is called 30 visits, where each NFL team can bring in 30 prospects to visit their team before the NFL Draft. Bears offensive line coach Dan Roushar shared how the team uses its 30 visits, which might differ from other NFL teams.
"Speaking on last year, because, you know, we thought we were in the market to go early. We had the tenth pick, and although that went to Colston (Loveland), which was a heck of a pick, we're all doing that as position coaches. That's what we're driving that for our head football coach, our GM, and those in the room to be able to go, 'Man, this guys' got good football makeup,' or there's some real concerns and the more concerns there are, the less clean they are, the more work then you have to do after the process. Bringing them to campus for what we call 30 visits. You get 30 prospects to come to campus and can spend an entire day, meal setting, whatever those things are. Do more legwork and a process like this, where you're on Zoom, 'Hey, how much more can we gather?' I always like to go back to if I know somebody that I really know at a college that has worked with a player, and they can give me an insider information about what is this like how does this guy handle injury? Is he going to be able to fight through it, or are we going to be dealing with a guy in the clubhouse? Because availability is so important in this league."
Interesting approach to how Bears use 30 visits
It's not a bad way to use it, as the Bears want to see what the concerns are with the prospect in person before deciding what to do. So much can be done virtually before having the prospect physically there, which can give a team more information.
To put into perspective how effective it was for the Bears in last year's NFL Draft, they did not select a single prospect among the 30 they visited. That worked out just fine for them as they got starters out of picks like Loveland, Ozzy Trapilo, Luther Burden, and Kyle Monangai from that 2025 class.
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Nobody can knock the strategy, as the Bears used it effectively and got some great picks in 2025.