Although Iowa tight end Hayden Large went undrafted, Ben Johnson identified him as someone he wanted on his football team. Here is what resonated with the Bears' head coach.
When the Chicago Bears selected Stanford tight end Sam Roush with the 69th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, that addition made the tight end room even more talented.
Roush joined a group featuring Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland, thereby realistically completing a position group that has veteran presence and young talent.
But with Ben Johnson as the team's head coach, there can never be too many tight ends. At the start of rookie minicamp, the Bears announced they signed undrafted rookie free agent tight end Hayden Large from Iowa, a player the team had been eyeing.
“Yeah, he was one of the guys we identified well before the draft," Johnson said. "He's a player that we really liked. A quick story about him - we do a great job trying to recruit some of these guys that we think might fall through the cracks and go undrafted. So, I actually called him before the draft and let him know that we had a vision for him. And when you take a tight end in the third round, you're kind of like, “Oh, shoot, that might take us away from Hayden coming here”.
And yet he didn't bat an eye. This is where he wanted to be. To me, that speaks volumes about how he's wired. And it has something to do with how he came to walk on at Iowa and earn him playing time and going through with the long, hard road. I really appreciate that and I think we got a good one there.”
Large, 24, spent his last three college seasons with the Iowa Hawkeyes and played 637 offensive snaps, including a career high 364 last season. He was also a major contributor on special teams, logging 492 snaps in 2025.
He only caught 14 career receptions for 89 yards with the Hawkeyes, but he does bring physicality as blocker, and that will resonate with Johnson and tight ends coach Jim Dray. That part of Large's game also stands out to his former teammate at Iowa and current teammate on the Bears, center Logan Jones.
"We’re super close," Jones said. "His story is super awesome. He went to Dordt, a really small school, as a tight end/fullback, and then transferred and was a fullback for the most of the time; our offense was kind of a fullback. And then he switched over to tight end. My favorite thing about him is the way he likes to block, get his nose in there, get dirty. And we like to run the ball here too, so it kind of fits. And just who he was. His leadership, not only in the tight end room at Iowa, but on the team and the influence, he wasn’t always the most vocal, but he did things the right way and people rallied behind him and followed him."
According to Pro Football Focus, Large finished with a 72.4 run block grade, ranking 23rd among 432 qualified tight ends in the NCAA. Iowa had the 6-foot-4, 255-pound tight end line up inline (306 snaps) and in the backfield as a fullback for 23 snaps last season.
Johnson deployed multiple tight end sets at a top-5 rate last season, which only increases the potential opportunities for a player like Large to see the field if he were to make the team.
Large wanted to play for Johnson, and Johnson wanted Large in Chicago. It could be a perfect match, but the undrafted rookie free agent from Iowa will have to capitalize on his opportunities to earn himself a spot on a roster that doesn't have many vacancies, especially at the tight end position.
