Chicago Bears: I Was Totally Right About Jordan van den Berg

LET’S TRAVEL BACK to July 30, 2026, when a notably handsome football pundit by the name of Alan Goldsher dropped the below knowledge in an article entitled, “Chicago Bears 2026 Bold Predictions, Training Camp Edition”:

“There’s always an overperforming surprise at training camp, and this year, it’ll be a day-three pick, so — wait for it, wait for it — welcome to the starting lineup, Jordan van den Berg.”

We don’t yet know if van den Berg, Chicago’s 2026 sixth-round pick (#213) out of Georgia Tech, will indeed take the field with Montez Sweat, Jaylon Johnson, and the rest of the Bears defensive first-teamers on September 13 at Bank of America Stadium in sunny Charlotte, North Carolina. But we do know that throughout training camp, he’s taken snaps with the first team. And we also know that this past Saturday, in his first NFL game, a preseason tussle against the Cleveland Browns, dude balled out.

Lest we forget, as noted in both this article’s subheader and its second paragraph, I boldly predicted the native of Johannesburg, South Africa would indeed crush…and my bold predictions are never right.

Admittedly, the man some call “Soul-Snatcher” crushed against the Browns’ backups (and their backups to their backups), and no pundit anywhere, handsome or not, will claim that Cleveland’s starters are particularly good, let alone their backups (or their backups to their backups).

But as Aristotle said, “Tape don’t lie.”

On the majority of his 27 snaps — a solid 41% of the Bears’ defensive plays — van den Berg proved he’s as violent as advertised, racking up a tackle, an assist, and a whopping three quarterback hits, causing a whole bunch of ruckus along the way.

A quick look at the Chicago Sports Stuff abacus tells us that means on 11.1% of his snaps, the rook gave the opposing quarterbacks a nice little love tap, which, as per PFSN, would’ve led the league in 2025 by a wide margin (Denver’s Zach Allen topped the NFL with 6.28%, and I defy you to find a Substack page that came up with a statistical comp this badass.)

This isn’t to say JVDB will be the greatest quarterback-killa in NFL history — small sample size, Browns’ backups to their backups, et cetera — but it should put in him the conversation for inclusion in the starting lineup.

Devan Kaney@Devan_Kaney

Disruptive. Fast. Violent. Those are the words Jordan Van Den Berg used to describe his play. The rookie has had quite the journey to the NFL and continued to impress in the Bears 34-10 win over the Browns today. My interview from our @fox32sports pregame show:

10:05 PM · Aug 15, 2026 · 18.3K Views

15 Replies · 32 Reposts · 421 Likes

As of August 17, the Bears’ official depth chart lists van den Berg as a third-stringer, behind Gervon Dexter Sr. and Kentavius Street, neither of whom have done anything in their respective careers to demonstrate they should be a shoo-in first-teamer. (Dexter’s had his moments, but considering the 2025 Bears’ lousy pass rush — they ranked 22nd in sacks, if you’ll recall — moments won’t suffice for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.)

Dayo Odeyingbo is listed as the other starter at the tackle position, but unless he shows out in the preseason — and he probably won’t have the opportunity to do so, as it appears coach Ben Johnson has zero interest in giving his starters any notable run, a logical decision — and if the rookie continues scaring the poop out of opposing field generals, what the heck, throw the kid in the deep end.

Worst case scenario, you hold your nose in Week 2 and start Dayo.

Best case scenario, Ben Johnson and D-coordinator Dennis Allen make the Bears’ scouting department look like geniuses for rocking it Kyle Monangai-style and hitting on a day-three pick for the second year in a row.