Larry Mayer
The Bears traded up for the second time Saturday, moving into the sixth round to draft Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg at No. 213.
They acquired the pick from the Bills in exchange for two seventh-round selections (Nos. 239 and 241).
Van den Berg grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, playing rugby and cricket. He moved to the United States with his family when he was 10 and initially played basketball and baseball before starting to play football as a high school sophomore.
Van den Berg attended Providence Christian Academy in Lilburn, Ga. After playing at Iowa Western Community College (2020-21), he spent five seasons at Penn State (2021-23) and Georgia Tech (2024-25), appearing in 54 games and recording 93 tackles, 20.0 tackles-for-loss, 6.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. Last year Van den Berg established career highs with 44 tackles, 11.0 tackles-for-loss and 3.0 sacks.
"Our coaches have been pounding the table for this kid for a long time, really the last two weeks," said Bears national scout Brendan Rehor. "We kind of have a process where we will give the coaches a stack of guys in this Day 3 range and this kid's name kept coming up pretty consistently. It's basically a DNA match with what our coaches want and then also a high character kid from what our scouts gathered."
Rehor describes Van den Berg as "a pretty explosive, twitchy kid."
"Our biggest goal going into this week was to get faster or more explosive on defense," Rehor said. "I think this kid kind of fits that, what we want to do. He's an up-field penetrator. He ran well, he tested well, some of the short area stuff. You see this kid get on edges a lot. That was the biggest thing that jumped off to us on tape."
Growing up in South Africa, Van den Berg was introduced to American football via the 2006 movie "Invincible," which stars Mark Wahlberg and is based on a true story about Philadelphia bartender Vince Papale earning a roster spot with the Eagles.
"I had that on DVD," Van den Berg said, "so I'd watched that over and over when I was a kid and I really fell in love with the sport from that."
As was the case with rugby, Van den Berg loved the physicality of football. He initially played receiver as a high school sophomore before lining up as a middle linebacker as a junior and senior. He continued to switch positions at the next level, playing defensive end in community college before moving to defensive tackle at Penn State.
"My body kept evolving and it's been awesome," Van den Berg said. "I feel like it adds a lot of value. Playing middle linebacker helped me with my vision."
It's no surprise that Van den Berg has excelled as an athlete. His grandfather, Francoise van den Berg, was a bodybuilder who was a two-time finalist at Mr. Universe competitions in 1966 and '67, the latter of which was won by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Van den Berg's grandmother, Joan Ricci, set multiple South African national swimming records.
After not being invited to the NFL Combine, Van den Berg displayed his athleticism at Georgia Tech's Pro Day, bench-pressing 225 pounds 35 times and recording a 4.9 in the 40, a 9-foot-11 broad jump and a 36-inch vertical jump.
Asked to identify his best trait, Van den Berg said: "I'll definitely say my explosiveness. I feel like that's something I pride myself on, being able to be strong at the point of attack like with my broad jump and my vert. Every day I'm training I'm trying to go as fast as I can."
Van den Berg is excited about joining the Bears, especially learning from veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett. Van den Berg's defensive line coach at Georgia Tech, Jess Simpson, served as Jarrett's position coach with the Falcons in 2019-20.
"Because he was the Falcons' D-line coach, we used to watch [Jarrett's] teach tape all the time," Van den Berg said. "That's something that I aspire to be like one day. I'm excited to learn. I can't wait to absorb all the information from him."
