Ruben Hyppolite II has already said he’s emulating his game after one Bears legend when he joined Adam Rank on his podcast early last week.

He’s also learned and is beginning to mold his game after two other NFL legends – Ray Lewis and Navorro Bowman.

Bowman, the former 49ers linebacker, stacked up quite the resume during his time in the Bay Area. He accumulated four All-Pro team selections, three Pro Bowl selections, three NFC Championship appearances and a Super Bowl Appearance.

After his NFL career, Bowman returned to his home state of Maryland and took up a coaching position with the University of Maryland as a defensive analyst. There, he helped develop the new Bears rookie linebacker into the player the Bears front office fell in love with on film.

“Coach Bow(man) is my guy. I was really close with him when I was at Maryland when he was there that one year,” Hyppolite said on Day 2 of Bears rookie minicamp. “He really just taught me a lot about how it’s gonna go at the next level, things I needed to work on. Things I did at the collegiate level, I’m not doing now. I’m playing differently now.”

It may have been only for one year, but Hyppolite certainly tried to absorb as much as he could from the Hall of Fame nominee. Bowman was a force in the middle of the defense for the dominating run of the 49ers in the 2010’s and his knowledge clearly helped Hyppolite, who racked up 66 combined tackles in 2023 when Bowman was on Maryland’s staff. Hyppolite finished with 236 combined tackles over his 50-game collegiate career.

It hasn’t been just Bowman that Ruben Hyppolite II has learned from. The Bears rookie also attended Ray Lewis’ camp before heading off to college.

Hyppolite said he mostly learned to listen during his time at the legendary linebacker’s camp.

 “Just being a great listener. It wasn’t really a lot of responding from me. I love to listen. I value listening, that’s what has gotten me this far,” Hyppolite said.

“So I just learned about, obviously time management, getting in the building early, recovery was the biggest piece. And then just playbook-wise, understanding your role, like I said before, understanding your role and understanding the pieces around you,” Hyppolite continued.

There’s some important life lessons in there for the rookie. For someone drafted in the 4th round, Hyppolite is going to have to take that last point and apply it during his time at Halas Hall.

Hyppolite will be paired alongside veteran Tremaine Edmunds in the middle linebacker position and will need to prove to Dennis Allen and the defensive staff that he deserves that 2nd spot in the depth chart.