No Edge Rusher a Matter of Bears Choice

The positive grades have come flowing in for the Bears since the draft ended from various websites.

Mel Kiper Jr. gave the Bears a B+ and said "They got help for now and later, setting themselves up to fill crucial needs in this draft."

Pro Football Focus determined a B+ and in explanation both took a shot at them for taking Darnell Wright first and also praised him.

"Wright fills a need for the Bears, but he is just the 22nd-ranked player on the PFF draft board. He produced a PFF grade of just 71.4 in 2022 but has some really good reps on tape where he just overpowers people."

SI.com called it a "B" even though it gave the Gervon Dexter selection on draft day an "F+" and then later said of the draft, "Chicago addressed its second biggest need drafting defensive tackles Dexter and Pickens during Day 2."

Pete Prisco of CBS Sports gave out a B and had a valid comment in his critique.

"I didn't like them trading down and passing on Jalen Carter in the first round. They moved down one spot and took tackle Darnell Wright, who is a good player, but they had a chance to get Carter, the best player in the draft," Prisco wrote.

Carmen Vitali of Fox Sports said it was an A- while NFL.com's Chad Reuter agreed on the grade.

Vitali made an astute second-round observation.

"My favorite pick of the draft for the Bears, though, may be Miami cornerback Tyrique Stevenson," Vitali wrote. "He's an incredibly smart player who tries to isolate receivers and can anticipate their options and route."

The grade here at BearDigest was a mere C+, although it would have been B+ except for the fact they came away from the draft without a defensive end and went in with defensive end among their top two needs, if not greatest need.

That's a gigantic omission and worthy of the mark down.

There are plenty of reasons why they failed to get an end and both Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus tried to explain it away afterward.

The scheme matchup with personnel available wasn't right. They plan to dent the pocket with the inside rush that commands double teams and lets outside rushers win. The sun got in their eyes. Yada yada yada.

The simple truth is the Bears could have found a way to draft an end and they didn't do it.

Why They Took No Defensive Ends

One popular explanation carries some weight and that's simply how they gambled and lost. They sacrificed the edge rusher position by taking their tackle first, hoped they'd be able to get an end in Round 2 and when they got to No. 53, all the best edge rushers had been gobbled up.

There is no doubt this happened.

Keion White of Georgia Tech went to the Patriots at 46, LSU's B.J. Ojulari to Arizona at 41, Isaiah Foskey to the Saints at No. 40 and Derick Hall from Auburn to the Seahawks at No. 37.

This happened right after a huge run on edge rushers to finish Round 1 when Felix Anudike-Uzomah was selected by Kansas City at 31, Nolan Smith by the Eagles at 30 and Myles Murphy by Cincinnati at 28.

The trouble with letting the Bears use this explanation is it is only a weak alibi:

You could see this coming, see it developing when all of these teams left the edge rusher needs until Round 2 by who they took in Round 1. The shoe had to drop and it did in a big way with those seven edge rushers taken between 28 and 46.
This is the most important fact—the Bears could have traded up to get their defensive end. No one said they had to sit there and hope they would have one land right in their laps. There were four trades made by teams in Round 2 to move into spots before the last of those edge rushers were taken off the board at No. 46 with White going to the Patriots then. If Poles really wanted to get one, he does have a telephone and should have used it.

Nothing kept Poles from moving up to get a cornerback in Round 2 at No. 56 when he thought Tyrique Stevenson might be drafted by the time they picked at No. 61. So he dealt away the 61st pick and the top pick in Round 5 (No. 136) for a chance to go up for Stevenson at 56.

"Didn't feel really comfortable with him making it to us, so we got a little bit of aggressive and went up and grabbed him," was how Poles said it.

If he wanted the edge rusher, he knew how to do it. He talked about trading up before the draft and assistant GM Ian Cunningham even said two days before the draft that they would sit and discuss this most likely after Day 1 of the draft ended.

The edge rushers were gone is merely an excuse. The answer was making a trade to go get one if they really wanted one in this draft and they knew this.

Matt Eberflus Approach

The bottom line was they really didn't like those edge rushers enough and that they do believe in this idea they can dent the pocket and force quarterbacks to throw errantly over the pressuring interior rush men, or throw to the outside where the ball is in the air longer and cornerbacks can make a play on it.

It's how they took away the ball so much in Indianapolis.

"I would say that the quarterbacks now are—for the most part, aren't as big, aren't as tall, so their sight lines are a little bit less than they used to be," coach Matt Eberflus said. "So I really believe if you have a nice guy that can dent the pocket inside, I really think that that pressure is felt right away (from tackles) because they're closer to the quarterback.

"I think it frees up the guys, gives them one-on-ones on the outside when you have two guys in there that can really do that. We've done it in the past where we had guys on the outside that are bigger type ends, and we kick them inside just because of their length and they're going against shorter players, shorter arm players typically in there with your guards and centers, so we like that mismatch at times."

Their entire approach to defensive end is built on the foundation of what Eberflus said last season when they were doing so poorly at getting sacks. He said it was because they weren't getting enough opportunities.

They believe they get more opportunities by stopping the run first, and they attempted to solidify the second-worst run defense in this the draft as well as in free agency with more stout defensive ends and bigger linebackers and defensive tackles. They're going to make teams predictable by forcing them into passing situations and then flush the quarterback out with their interior rush.

Because they believe in this, they were willing to go up for Stevenson but not willing to go up for a Round 2 or late Round 1 edge rusher.

The problem with the Bears' approach is the mobile quarterback who can buy time with his feet doesn't care as much about the interior rush, or the adept veteran passer just steps up into creases in the pocket to deliver the ball and has plenty of time to do it without any real edge pressure.

Timing passes will always be a problem, too. The slants and the skinny posts against cover-2 zone will always be a problem for this defense.

Their Fatal Draft Flaw

The lack of an edge rusher is a huge problem that all of these high marks the Bears received for the draft fail to adequately take into account.

And the lack of supply in the draft by mid-to-late Round 2 is no excuse when you see that an NFL record 43 trades were made this year in the draft.

The Bears themselves making two first-round deals, one in Round 2 and one to acquire another Round 5 pick at 165 after they gave away theirs at No. 136 in the earlier move up to draft Stevenson.

In postdraft Poles assessment, he talked about all the record number of trades.

"The amount of trading I feel like just keeps going up every year, which is good," Poles said.

For the Bears, it would have been better if he had simply added to that record and made one more to moved up early in Round 2 or the bottom of Round 1 so they could get a defensive end.

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