Skip to main content
Bear Digest

Grady Jarrett Says Bears D-Line Heard the Doubts and Plans to Answer

Grady Jarrett says the Bears defensive line has heard the criticism, and Chicago must now prove its current group can fix one of the NFL's worst units.
Gene Chamberlain|
Defensive end Austin Booker is proof young talent exists on the Bears defensive line but they need more examples of it.
Defensive end Austin Booker is proof young talent exists on the Bears defensive line but they need more examples of it. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

In this story:

Chicago Bears

While Bears GM Ryan Poles fielded plenty of criticism for not adding more to the defensive line in the offseason, players who finished last year with the league's 29th-ranked defense heard all of it.

Defensive tackle Grady Jarrett made this apparent Thursday at Bears OTAs.

"Yeah, we all got cell phones and internet, so...," Jarrett said, as media laughed. "No, so we hear it, man. But it also comes with the job, you know, it comes with the job.

"And at the end of the day, we gotta really take it personal and get back to work. Even if sometimes your best ain't good enough. So you gotta find out ‘Where can I be better at? Where can I …’  So it all goes together. But all we can do as a unit is look in the mirror and challenge ourselves every day to go be better and do what we need to do to have better output."

Barring some miracle addition, the Bears are about set on defense with personnel. Any addition would be supplemental. They're not signing starters at this point.

What they have is what they have

Jarrett sees reasons why the group they have can be the right mix, even as they continue to look at players like Buffalo free agent defensive end A.J. Epenesa. One obvious way is by maintaining good health. Jarrett, himself, could vouch for this because of the knee injury he suffered early in the season that made a fast start with his new team impossible.

"I do think that's a big part of it, staying healthy," he said. "We all were kind of bit someway somehow by the injury bug last year, but that all goes into the preparation and it's how we take care of ourselves and how we go through our processes and stuff like that. But I definitely think health is up there."

The Bears had more lost games to injuries than any team in the league according to Sports Info Solutions, with 336. Not all of those were impact players but the huge number of them were on defense. The line not only had injuries to Jarrett but to Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner. The linebackers were different almost every week for the first 75% of the schedule, and that hurt their ability to stop the run.

Jarrett thinks there can be improvement by simply being in the system another year and coaches knowing the players. This might sound cliche but Seattle's defensive line needed a season under Mike Macdonald before it could step forward and dominate. It does work that way.

"But also, like we talked about earlier, had done a lot of self-scout, seeing where we can get better at and also, you know, the coaches believing in us, the guys that's in the room, knowing that if we just focus more on these things that we can get the job accomplished," Jarrett said. "So it's up to us as players to go out here and get it done, because obviously the coaches and personnel department believe in us to do a job at a high level and that's what we need to go do."

In Austin Booker they trust

As for that personnel, Jarrett maintains it isn't as bad as some people have made it out to be. Coach Ben Johnson says with coaching, it gets better.

"Our coaches are teaching at a very high level," Johnson said. "Whereas last year we might have put in a lot of scheme. Now it's a little bit more fundamental and technique driven, which we feel like is where we need to be this time of year. We'll get to the scheme part later on.

"But, yeah, I mean, it's been really good conversations with (defensive coordinator) DA (Dennis Allen) and his staff. I think we’ev got a really good group on that side."

Besides, some of the talent is budding up front, particularly Austin Booker. Johnson pointed to Booker as a player who has made offseason strides.

Booker made 4 1/2 sacks, four tackles for loss and 15 pressures in his final six games, including the playoffs. He came on strong with more playing time and has continued this after missing the first eight weeks last season with a knee injury.

"He's another one that missed some time last year," Johnson said. "So I think the more time on task we have as a coaching staff, how we're coaching things, I think it’s just going to add up. He's still a young player. He's still developing. His body's changed since he came in the building a year ago, and even from where we ended the season even until when he came back in for the spring program. He continues to add more mass and become a stronger player.

"He gets smarter as we go and I think the coaching is really going to be conducive to his style of play as well. It’s reps, reps, reps with all these players, all these young guys. The more reps they get, the better they're going to get.”

Remember, they did add some tackles

It's not just the edge. Johnson thinks the three veteran defensive tackles added — Kentavius Street, Neville Gallimore, and James Lynch — can help, and maybe even rookie sixth-rounder Jordan van den Berg.

"I played with Kentavius three years in Atlanta," Jarrett said. "He’s going to bring a lot to the room. Neville Gallimore is a guy who is strong, fast, fits the bill of what we want to accomplish here. Then also having Lynch here from Tennessee, I think he has played a lot of good football.

"So we have a really good room and obviously me and Dex (Gervon Dexter) are coming back from last year. I think we have a really good room, combination of guys and these young rookies we have work really hard too and they put in a lot of good work. So I’m excited for our interior group to see what we really can do. And as long as we do what they’re asking us to do, I think we’ll cause a lot of havoc."

If it happens, then what they see when they look on their cell phones at the internet won't be as negative.

X: Genechamberlai2

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

Home/News