Why Bears Look Like Non-Participants in the Final Days of the Edge Market

The way it looks now, it would be surprising if they made a move to get more emergency help, and here’s why.

1. Shortening list of candidates

Cleveland’s Myles Garrett and Vegas’ Maxx Crosby have been discussed for some time as potential options for edge rusher-starved teams like the Lions. But reports since then then tell me no team even wants to talk about trading his star rusher. Jordan Dajani of CBS Sports named the Giants’ Aziz Ojulari, the Browns’ Za’Darius Smith and the Packers’ Preston Smith as perhaps the best players on the market.

Since the Bears unsuccessfully tried to trade Matthew Judon, it is believed that they might be interested in whoever is available, but in reality, the truth is that they won’t get much value. They won’t give up top draft picks for someone like the Smiths, who both terrorized them in Green Bay. Both are in their 30s, but the Packers probably wouldn’t be interested in moving Preston Smith to a division team. Ojulari has skill, but having only played 43 games, he has always had injury problems throughout his four seasons. He has 22 sacks in four seasons, but he has more upside in the 3-4 than in the one-run pass rush the Bears use at end.

2. They are already laying eggs well.

They moved up from second-to-last in the league last year and from last last year to 12th in sacks with 20, the same number they had in the final nine games last year when Sweat came on the scene. However, it goes far beyond bags.

The Bears rank 10th in rush rate at 9.6%, according to Stathead/Pro Football Reference. Rushing forces the QB to throw before he wants to or throws him out of the pocket. They are eighth in pressure with 27.6%.

For the Bears, it’s all about pressure and making decisions.

3. The overall picture looks good

The whole point of the Bears pass rush is pressure and coverage. This is a two-part system that complements each other. How much better can they do when they lead the NFL in passer rating, as they do, and when they rank first in red zone scoring and red zone touchdown percentage allowed? They held a top-four offense and four field goals until they got unlucky on the final play, forcing them to punt field goals.

“The guys have done a great job on that side of the field, understanding the urgency that you need and understanding that our goals are field goals and takeaways,” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “We want to win the ball or force a field goal. Their urgency increased. We needed to do something to protect the passage. We needed to do something to impact the quarterback. And everything was exactly as you wanted.”

If they were put under a little more pressure, more interceptions could happen, but then again, more could happen when they finally get their two vital, injured players back in the secondary, Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker.

They don’t keep statistics on the percentage of Hail Marys stopped. They could have won if they had a strong passing game in that game, but Sweet was sidelined with a calf injury and looks set to return this week after only playing 50% of the game last week. Without Sweat, the full onslaught will look weaker. They have three more pass rushers in the top 20. ESPN pass rush winning percentage largely due to the presence of Sweat.

“The other benefit of having a guy like Montez is that, as you probably know, some of the rushing gets distributed among the other guys on the defensive line,” Washington said. “We are the sum of our parts, if you will. If you’re going to focus on Montez, someone outside his worldview has to be productive.”

4. They may already have the answer.

The young rushers haven’t really had much success, but Darrell Taylor has been in the top 15 in pass rush win percentage all year, and they just got Jake Martin back on Sunday after he was on IR all season. He played only 15 plays.

“The energy was obvious, his energy, his speed, his quickness, his toughness,” Washington said. “I think he did some really good things as a striker. I thought there were a couple of times he was able to not only impact the quarterback but also hit him, and I’m looking forward to seeing him take a pretty big leap this week.”

If he doesn’t, or Sweat has an unforeseen issue related to his injury, then the need for a rush looks a little more serious. But the help they’re getting at tackle (Andrew Billings is fifth among interior linemen in pass rush win percentage and Gervon Dexter is 11th) has balanced that outburst and could continue to do so, provided they don’t lose Sweat in the long term.

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If that happens, it’s essentially every man for himself ahead, and the Bears are back to almost where they were in the pass rush in 2022.

And then the deal would look good. But there is only one game for all of these scenarios to happen, and then the Bears defense will be what it is.

Nowadays, it’s very good when you can hold a high-scoring team to 18 points or four field goals and a fluke. If they do something similar to Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ potentially explosive offense, expect the deadline to come and go without their name being mentioned regarding pass rushers.

Twitter: BearsOnSI