Report: Bears Meet with Top TE Draft Prospect Brycen Hopkins for the Third Time

April 7, 2020, by Luis Medina Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears have 10 tight ends on their roster.

And according to OverTheCap.com, the team is spending $22,423,369 to house those bodies on their roster.

But it isn’t keeping them from kicking the tires on one of the NFL Draft’s top prospects at the position.

News from The Athletic’s Adam Jahns:

Purdue’s Brycen Hopkins, the Big Ten tight end of the year, recently had a video call with the #Bears, along with a number of other interviews with other teams.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) April 7, 2020

The Bears have held a video meeting with Brycen Hopkins, a Purdue product and Big Ten Tight End of the Year award winner in 2019. This is Chicago’s *THIRD* reported meeting with Hopkins, with the first coming during Senior Bowl week and second coming at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Feels significant, doesn’t it?

Hopkins was a play-making machine for the Boilermakers in the passing game last season, grabbing 61 catches, gaining 830 receiving yards, and scoring seven touchdowns. His efforts landed him first-team All-Big Ten honors and being named the conference’s top tight end. And even though no tight end has emerged as a sure-fire first-round prospect, that just means the class’ top player could be available in the second round. Conveniently enough, Hopkins has long been viewed as a Day 2 prospect who could be a plug-and-play pass-catcher in the right offense. Whether that offense belongs to the Bears is a different question.

Chicago flexed its financial muscle in signing Jimmy Graham and Demetrius Harris as free agents earlier in the offseason. So maybe drafting a tight end with one of the team’s two second-round picks isn’t something that could be in play. But because the Bears don’t have a long-term option, and GM Ryan Pace has been known to double-dip in addressing needs in free agency and the draft, nothing can be ruled out. With that being said, we’ll continue to monitor who the Bears reach out to in the pre-draft process as draft weekend approaches.