Pulling Together the Bears Defense
Only a few minutes earlier Bears coach Matt Eberflus had seen the pick-6 made by Tremaine Edmunds at OTAs and the ensuing defensive end zone celebration.
Then he was asked at the post-practice press conference what Edmunds brought to the team.
The first thing out of Eberflus' mouth wasn't about Edmunds' speed or his 6-foot-5 height and arm length, which can allow him to handle the center of the field in a style like Brian Urlacher did for the Bears in a similar scheme. All of those qualities are apparent enough as they're physical traits.
"Yeah, just leadership," Eberflus said. "He really takes command in the defensive room and he gives great suggestions and he's very smart.
"Obviously he has the size and the range and the speed and all those things that he has physically. But I would just say the leadership."
It's an intangible few talk about and is even considered by many as valid or critical less. It exists and carries importance.
When the Bears had Roquan Smith in the first seven games last season and owned a 3-4 record, there was no debate about who the defense looked to on the field as leader. Smith commanded respect from players. It was obvious even to reporters in the locker room, and not just from players on the defensive side.
He was their lifeline back to 2018 success and and a key athletic component to stopping offenses, but he also led. Suddenly he was gone via trade.
There's a direct correlation between that missing leadership and the fact the Bears haven't won a game since Smith got traded. You won't find a statistic about it on Pro Football Focus or NFL Next Gen stats but it's real.
The two full-time linebacker starters were then Jack Sanborn and Nicholas Morrow. Both were undrafted, Sanborn only a rookie. The leadership fell to Morrow and he had not been in such a primary leadership role before with the Raiders. Now he's on the Eagles on a one-year contract at a cost near the league minimum, about $1.1 million or $2 million less than the Bears paid him for one year.
There were other leaders on defense like Justin Jones on the line and Eddie Jackson in the secondary but the heart of the defense is where the leadership needs to come from because it links up the front and back end.
Now they have someone apparently capable of doing it in Edmunds.
"I've been fortunate enough to go through this thing now; this is my sixth year," he said. "Each year, I've continued to learn about more and more, every year and every step."
Edmunds sees leadership as a learned quality.
"You got to learn from other guys," he said. "You got to see different ways guys want to be led."
The experience of five seasons at still a young age of 25–he just turned 25 on May 2–has taught Edmunds to listen to his teammates when leading.
"I'm not the type of leader where it's got to be my way every time because I don't think that’s good leadership," he said. "Good leadership is being able to listen, being able to understand that everybody is different. Everybody has different personalities. Everybody responds to stuff differently.
"It's just about at the end of the day, holding everybody accountable, making it a safe place where guys can put their personalities out. I tell guys every day, 'Let your personality out because that's what got you here.' No need to change up now. But everybody is depending on one another when they're out here. So, at the same time, while I'm saying that stuff, everybody understands the responsibility is to be great, to be a greater defense, to be at the top of the league."
The Bears defense still lacks a proven edge rusher and the interior of the defensive line might have talent but hasn't proven anything on the field yet.
They appear to have at least the leadership and talent level at linebacker upgraded immensely, and Edmunds takes it seriously.
"We like him for the things that he did when he was with the other team," defensive coordinator Alan Williams said. "So we want him to do more of that. And then we like the leadership qualities that he has. I don't think you can have too many good leaders, when you have good leaders in the building that have a standard, that are accountable from an actions standpoint and verbally.
"On top of (that), he looks like a million bucks. Those are all things that we want him to do. Nothing different than anything he did before. We don't want him to change. We want him to be more of what he is."
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