An NFL general manager will fall in love with a prospect during evaluations for the NFL Draft sometimes, and the fondness that Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles developed for Kennesaw State defensive tackle Travis Bell in preparation for the 2023 event probably can’t be overstated.

“This is probably one of my favorite human beings,” Poles said. “He is a special person. I didn’t want him to leave after his 30 visit, and he didn’t want to leave either. There’s something different about this guy. He is passionate about the game. When you talk about having a full-time job during the season and showing up to the locker room in your clothes with your ID badge and your little knife from his job, that tells you what the game means to him. He’s working, and football and practice is recess to him, and those are the guys that we want.

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“He played hard. His film — he goes sideline to sideline. That is not a lie, and it stands out on tape. I love the intensity that he plays with. Again, that’s going to make us better. Coming out of high school, the guy played D-line, running back, linebacker, fullback, everything. You can see that in the way that he moves.”

After arriving from Jeff Davis in Montgomery in 2018, Bell grew into the first Kennesaw State player picked in an NFL Draft.

“It means a lot to me,” Bell said. “That’s everything you can ask for for a guy like me. That was most definitely a part of the goal, but you know I really just wanted the opportunity, however it came. …

“I was really worried about just getting the opportunity to just come in and be able to go against those top-caliber guys so I could prove myself. And now that I got the opportunity, there’s no worries. Not anymore worrying going on around here, man.”

The Bears chose Bell with the 218th overall pick in the final round of the 88th NFL Draft on April 29, and the selection sent outlets scrambling for information about the Chicago pick as some draftnik sites didn’t have him listed among the prospects. They weren’t the only ones surprised when Chicago picked Bell.

“I was surprised,” Bell said, “because things kind of started looking ugly toward the end. I was really just worried about getting a call after the draft, honestly, so once I got that call, man, I was excited. I couldn’t hold it back. …

“I don’t even think I could talk. I was too busy bawling up.”

During an appearance on the “CHGO Bears” podcast, Kennesaw State coach Brian Bohannon said Chicago couldn’t have drafted “a better young man.”

“Travis comes from very little,” Bohannon said. “He’s the story you hear about that doesn’t have much at home. His mom is there, and they got a great relationship. He does not have a lot. A college graduate at any point in time in his family is probably not even a topic of conversation. And when he got here, he struggled. I’ll be honest with you, he struggled just getting in line with what’s required in being a student-athlete in college, and he and I had multiple conversations.

“To his credit, he kind of fought his way through it and ended up being what we knew he would be as a player, because we really felt that way about him coming out as a player. But not only that, he became a leader on our football team that all the guys would go to and respected. And the thing about it is he’s got about as big a heart as you could imagine.”

Chicago has sought to beef up its defensive interior this offseason. Of the four defensive-interior players who took at least one-third of the Bears’ snaps last season, only Justin Jones returns. Chicago signed veterans Andrew Billings, Rasheem Green and DeMarcus Walker in free agency. And two SEC defensive tackles were drafted ahead of Bell – Florida’s Gervon Dexter in the second round and South Carolina’s Zacch Pickens in the third round.

But a chance was all Bell wanted.

“I just plan on taking advantage of this opportunity,” Bell said.

“What a fantastic young man,” Chicago coach Matt Eberflus said. “I’m really optimistic about him and really enthused by him being here.”

Of the seventh-rounders in the 2022 NFL Draft, eight did not play as rookies, and 14 more played in less than half of their team’s games.

Poles doesn’t have expectations like that for Bell with the Bears.

“There’s just something about him,” Poles said. “There’s just something special about the human being, the energy that he has. The passion for the game. You can just tell he’s a good person that you want around.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.