The Bears will hold their local pro day Friday at Halas Hall, but their most important meeting might’ve taken place the day before.
The team hosted Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson on Thursday, according to Josh Norris of NBC Sports. While the team meeting with a potential pick at No. 8 is hardly a shock, it does register as progress. Last month, Nelson said it was a little surprising that he’d yet to talk at length with the Bears, either at the NFL Scouting Combine or otherwise.
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The team already knows him better than anyone, however. Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, who mentored Nelson and likely first-round offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey in college, was new Bears coach Matt Nagy’s first hire in January. Last month, the 6-5, 329-pound Nelson said he’d like to play for Hiestand again.
“Coach Hiestand, he’s known me since I was an immature freshman who wasn’t good at football until now, being a lot more mature and responsible and doing the right thing and a good football player,” Nelson said at his own pro day. “He knows everything about me.”
Irish wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown won’t attend, sources said. St. Brown, who caught 33 passes for 515 yards last year, could be a second-day pick.
Local pro days often give teams a look at lesser-known prospects who grew up in the area or attended nearby colleges. The Bears used the workout last year to get another look at Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, who was chosen in the second round by the Browns.
The Bears’ best recent local find on pro day was wide receiver Cam Meredith, who impressed them at the 2015 event and eventually earned a rookie free-agent contract.
He was the team’s leading receiver in 2016 before tearing his knee last year. Meredith just joined the Saints as a restricted free agent.
