5 NFL Draft prospects Bears should already be scouting
By John Buhler
4. Jared Verse is a disruptor in the middle of Florida State's defensive line
After actually trading away a terrific opportunity to take the best player in the 2023 NFL Draft in former Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter, Chicago may have wanted a mulligan on that one. He now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles alongside oh, so many of his former college teammates. If Poles wants to overcome one of his GOB Bluth huge mistakes, just take Jared Verse out of Florida State then.
Verse may very well be the definitive player of the Mike Norvell era in Tallahassee. After being grossly underrecruited out of high school, Norvell and his staff saw flashes of Verse while preparing to play Syracuse. At the time, Verse was playing for ... Albany. So the former Great Dane is now a 'Nole, and is having the time of his life playing for a likely College Football Playoff contender. He is a top-five pick.
While I don't know if he will be as good as Carter was coming out of Georgia, Verse's dominance in the trenches can blow up an opposing team's offensive game plan. At its core, Chicago is a defensive-minded football franchise. Verse is a player head coach Matt Eberflus should be over the moon about getting on his team. We are looking at a potentially less problematic version of Carter.
Nobody is going to blame the Bears for making Verse either one of their certain top-10 selections.