Another 2025 NFL Mock Draft has Chicago Bears going back to offensive line in Round 1

The 2025 NFL mock draft circuit will soon come to a close once Thursday, April 24, arrives. It's only then that the first round of this year's draft will kick off in Green Bay and, finally, answer all of the questions surrounding the Chicago Bears' draft plans.

Those Bears draft plans have been so clouded in mystery that first-round projections have been hard to keep up with. They've ranged from Will Campbell to Ashton Jeanty to Tyler Warren and even a few edge rushers.

The point? No one knows what GM Ryan Poles will do in the first round when Chicago is on the clock at No. 10 overall.

But there's a noticeable trend developing over the last few days and in this final sprint of Chicago Bears mock drafts: a return to offensive tackle.

Take the latest 2025 mock draft from Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice and Charles McDonald. They send the Bears former Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., a name that consistently appeared in December-ish mock drafts but vanished over the last two or three months.

Banks is back, and he's trending in a big way.

"The Bears have revamped their interior offensive line, but still have a hole at left tackle across from Darnell Wright, who is one of the better offensive tackles in the league," Tace and McDonald wrote. "Enter Kelvin Banks Jr., who should be given a chance to play left tackle but can play guard as well if one of their guard investments doesn’t work this year."

The closer we get to the bell going off on the first round, the more it feels like Banks to the Bears makes the most sense. Assuming Chicago stands pat at No. 10 overall, Banks will most likely be the highest-rated offensive lineman on the board, and with the Bears making such a concentrated effort at fixing the offensive line once and for all, Banks -- even if he's not the popular choice -- is a good pick.

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