Bear Digest

There's More Than Meets the Eye to Bears' Defensive Tackle Signings

Signing Kentavius Street and Neville Gallimore probably excited no one, but there are reasons the Bears expect something more from both players than in the past.
Gene Chamberlain|
Defensive tackle Kentavius Street makes a tackle playing in Dennis Allen's defense for the Saints in 2022.
Defensive tackle Kentavius Street makes a tackle playing in Dennis Allen's defense for the Saints in 2022. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The credentials are underwhelming for both defensive line acquisitions made by GM Ryan Poles on the first two days of Bears free agency.

Both Kentavius Street and Neville Gallimore are similar players who struggled to make big impacts throughout journeyman careers. There could be more than meets the eye with these players, though. What is clear is they are providing depth at defensive tackle behind Grady Jarrett and Gervon Dexter. Both have spent their careers providing depth elsewhere.

These are not defensive ends, but both have lined up parts of their career over tackle or outside of it. In other words, they have the position versatility defensive coordinator Dennis Allen likes even from tackles.

Signing them does not necessarily prevent the Bears from pursuing another, more potentially dominant defensive tackle in the draft. However, with four defensive tackles signed, it seem more logical if their immediate interest or the draft shifts to defensive end.

They have only Montez Sweat, Austin Booker, Daniel Hardy and Dayo Odeyingbo at the edge and Odeyingbo is 4 1/2 months removed from a torn Achilles tendon. Hardy doesn't really fit their concept of an edge and was being worked in at strongside linebacker during last offseason, but his real value is as a tackler on special teams, where he was in on a team-high 20 last season.

There could be more at work with both Gallimore and Street  than meets the eye, and what meets the eye is mediocre NFL records.

Kentavius Street's secret

At 6-2, 315, he has spent two-thirds of his career lining up in the B-gap and plays both 3-technique and nose in both 3-4 and 4-3 base defenses. 

The real hidden fact in his career has been his one bigger season came as a player in Allen's scheme during a one-season stopover in New Orleans. He made 3 1/2 of his 10 1/2 career sacks then in 2022, after he'd been with the 49ers three years.  His career high for tackles came in Allen's scheme with 29. His career high for pressures, with nine, came with the Saints.

Street has been better against the run than the pass over the course of his career, according to Pro Football Focus grading. He has been graded in the top half of the league as a pass rusher only once, back in 2021 with the 49ers in 34th out of 124 interior linemen. His next best was 68th of 127 under Allen in New Orleans in 2022 when PFF gave him credit for six sacks but he officially made only the 3 1/2. PFF sack totals are definitely not official, but they also gave him his career high for pressures as Stathead/Pro Football Reference did with 19.

Street has lined up 1,625 plays in the A gap or B gap but 418 times over the tackle or  the edge.

His run-stopping statistics have been much better over the last part of his career and better than his pass rush, but still not anything to be excited about. PFF ranked him 81st of 134 last year, but 38th out of 132 in 2024 and 56th of 132 in 2023.

On the downside, Street couldn't even get on the Falcons' 53-man roster coming out of training camp last year and was brought up to finish the second half of the season. He played only seven games last season.

Another fit with Neville Gallimore

Gallimore had more chances to start and play than Street over the course of his career, but what's apparent here is something similar. While he didn't play in New Orleans like Street, his best career came last year in a system more like what he's going into with the Bears than he had been during earlier aspects of his career. He has played almost the exact same ratio of plays on the inside and on the outside as Street and Gallimore came in the NFL and was playing in base 3-4 defenses with Dallas under Mike Nolan and Dan Quinn until he went to the Rams as a free agent in 2024, and again there was in a 3-4 base.

Last season he was in a base 4-3 under coordinator Lou Anarumo with the Colts for the first time in his career, and made a dramatic improvement in numbers.

He'd never made more than 1 1/2 sacks and had 3 1/2 in the 4-3 base. His six hits and nine pressures were career highs in the 4-3. His 38 tackles as only a part-time starter were still a career best. His our tackles for loss tied a career high.

Obviously, the Bears are projecting him as a system fit, just like they do with Street.

The down side

There is one glaring downside to both of these defensive tackle additions.

The biggest problem the Bears had last year was not pass rush. It was stopping the run.

The Bears finished 27th stopping the run, 29th in yards allowed per rush.  Those are concrete numbers. Ranking next to last in pass rush win rate is a subjective ESPN analytic but there is no denying they haven't been able to stop the run, and when you can't stop the run you make it tougher on your pass rushers to beat blockers. It's even worse in play-action situations.

They didn't get adequate run-stopping defense from Dexter at all or from Grady Jarrett until very late after he was over a knee injury, and neither of these two additions significantly improve their run defense. Shemar Turner will return this season from an ACL tear but he showed up more at edge last year than tackle.

The only hope here after the free agent tackle additions is that better system fits let the duo do it better in Chicago.

Gallimore never graded higher than 77th against the run in his  career. That grade happened last year in the Colts' 4-3.  Street only ranked top half of the league against the run twice in his career, in 2024 when he was 38th and 2023 when he was 56th. Neither of those came during his season in Allen's scheme. He was 107th out of 127 against the run in that season.

Clearly, the Bears have not addressed their biggest weakness with these  defensive tackle additions. The one thing they can hope is they have improved enough with players more suited to their scheme to push the line of scrimmage back in order to stop the run.

They can still use defensive tackle help in the draft in the form of a run stopper but have an even greater need now simply for bodies at edge rusher.

Maxx Crosby anyone?

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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.

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