After the Bears held their third and final mandatory minicamp practice Thursday, coach Ben Johnson identified four under-the-radar players who have impressed him in offseason workouts.

The first individual that Johnson named was fourth-year defensive end Dominique Robinson, a 2022 fifth-round draft pick from Miami (Ohio).

"Even without pads on, he's done a great job of consistently speed rushing up the field or countering back to the inside," Johnson said. "He's done a really nice job there. And, of course, he's got some special teams value that he takes a lot of pride in as well."

In three seasons with the Bears, Robinson has appeared in 34 games with eight starts and registered 49 tackles, three tackles-for-loss and 2.0 sacks. Last year the 6-5, 253-pounder played in six games and recorded seven tackles.

"I don't even know about last year, to be honest with you, in terms of what that looked like," Johnson said. "But I can tell you that he has popped off. He looks the part for sure, and as we know, [with] O-line and D-line play, it's hard to really gauge too much [without pads], but he does have a quick first step off the ball. He lined up on our left tackles quite a bit here over the last few weeks and you could tell that he got the edge on them."

A second defensive player who stood out to Johnson was rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II, a fourth-round selection from Maryland.

"I thought the player we probably saw the most improvement from when he stepped in to now was Ruben Hyppolite," Johnson said. "He's done a nice job learning. He's swimming a little bit, but he's taking it seriously. [Linebackers] Coach Richard Smith has done a fantastic job with him over the course of the last few weeks."

The Bears targeted Hyppolite in the draft in large part due to his blazing speed. In training camp, he'll compete for playing time behind established pros T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds.

"There's a lot of moving parts there at linebacker play," Johnson said. "They're keying and diagnosing a few different deals and just with DA's (Dennis Allen) scheme, the match mentality that we like to play a lot of our coverages with, things change quickly.

"He's done a great job adjusting to that speed as we've gone through, and that's going to have to show up once we do get the pads on. But I think he's been improving every single day and really we're hoping that course continues."

The two under-the-radar offensive players who have impressed Johnson this spring are tight end Joel Wilson and rookie running back Kyle Monangai.

Wilson entered the NFL with the Saints in 2023 as an undrafted free agent from Central Michigan. The 6-4, 246-pounder also had short stints with the Bills, Packers and Giants before spending the second half of last season on the Bears practice squad.

In two-minute drills in Thursday's practice, Wilson caught a touchdown pass and later made a sensational grab by leaping over a defender along the sideline.

"You saw him today with a big catch," Johnson said. "He's kind of had one or two of those almost every OTA [practice]."

Wilson will be a player to watch in training camp and the preseason.

"He's got a little savvy in how he moves," Johnson said. "He's got a nice route feel about him. The test will really be when we get going in camp how he holds up in the run game and the pass pro game. But so far in the running route section of tight end play, he's stood out in a positive light."

Monangai was chosen by the Bears in the seventh round of this year's draft out of Rutgers, where he appeared in 52 games the past five years and rushed for 3,221 yards and 27 TDs on 669 carries. The 5-8, 211-pounder was named first-team All-Big Ten last year after rushing for a career high 1,279 yards, his second straight season eclipsing 1,200 yards on the ground.

"In the running back room, Kyle Monangai has really stepped up," Johnson said. "I appreciate the attention to detail and the pride he takes and how quickly he's picking things up."