Josh Kreutz
Getty
Center Josh Kreutz should be on the Chicago Bears' radar.
Center has been a revolving door for the Chicago Bears for a while now.
Coleman Shelton started all 17 games in 2024, but he spawned enough fan ire to make the position a top offseason priority. Drew Dalman was supposed to be the answer after signing a three-year, $42 million deal last March — then he stunned the organization by retiring at 27 after the 2025 season concluded.
General manager Ryan Poles pivoted fast, shipping a 2027 fifth-round pick to New England for Garrett Bradbury, a 30-year-old veteran on the final year of his deal.
Bradbury is fine. He’s a former first-round pick with 105 career starts, and the Bears valued his experience working with a young quarterback after his role in the Patriots’ Super Bowl run. But Chicago still needs to find its center of the future, likely through the draft.
Could Josh Kreutz — who has a last name Bears Nation know well — be an option?
Could Olin Kreutz’s Son Josh Be an Option for the Chicago Bears Heading Into 2026 NFL Draft?
Olin Josh Kreutz
GettyOlin Kreutz’s son Josh has a lot of the same traits his father did. Should the Chicago Bears draft him, or sign him as an UDFA?
Bears fans, of course, know that Josh is the son of Olin Kreutz, the franchise’s all-time great at center and one of the most popular offensive lineman in team history. Olin started 182 regular-season games for Chicago — second only to Walter Payton — and earned six Pro Bowl nods and a place on the NFL’s 2000s All-Decade Team.
Even after hanging up his cleats, Olin stayed woven into the fabric of the city, working as a Bears analyst for 670 The Score and NBC Sports Chicago.
The apple hasn’t fallen far. Former Sportskeeda analyst Tony Pauline described Josh as “fundamentally sound, smart and tough as nails,” which are all descriptors that apply to his father, as well.
Considering Chicago’s need at center, Sports Illustrated’s Gene Chamberlain thinks the Bears adding the younger Kreutz is a good idea.
“This group is obviously short two centers,” Chamberlain wrote on March 23. “A suggestion: Draft one and sign Olin Kreutz’s son Josh, the Illinois center as a UDFA. He’s going to have plenty of insight into what it takes to play the position in the NFL even though draft ratings aren’t putting him in a range were he could be selected.”
More on Young Center Josh Kreutz
A 6-foot-2, 290-pound center out of Illinois, Josh will likely be a Day 3 pick, but if he doesn’t get drafted, he’ll absolutely sign as a priority undrafted free agent somewhere. For a Bears team needing a long-term center, he’d certainly be worth a flier.
Kreutz earned back-to-back All-Big Ten honorable mentions and was named a team captain for the 2025 season. He anchored a line that helped Illinois reach the Citrus Bowl after the 2024 season and beat No. 23 Tennessee in the Music City Bowl the following year.
Nobody would expect Josh to start Week 1. But either draft him late or ink him as a UDFA and let him develop behind Bradbury in Ben Johnson’s offense, and he could learn the system, earn his reps and step in if and when he’s ready.
Whether it would take a late-round pick or a phone call after the draft, the Bears have every reason to make it happen.