Bear Digest

Bears Linebackers Hold High Ground Despite Last Year's Slow Start

After a strong second half to last season, Pro Football Focus places Bears linebackers among the game's elite for the second straight year.

Gene Chamberlain

T.J. Edwards records a sack last season. Edwards' pass rush last year was one of the pleasant surprises of his acquisition.
T.J. Edwards records a sack last season. Edwards' pass rush last year was one of the pleasant surprises of his acquisition. / Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports
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A year later, Bears GM Ryan Poles apparently knew what he was doing by bringing in two linebackers in free agency at a big cost.

The debate raged on when the Bears spent money on linebackers rather than pursue free agent defensive linemen. They simply got the right linebackers.

T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds are the main reasons the Bears came up No. 3 overall in the linebacker position group rankings by Pro Football Focus.

PFF had a good idea what was going to happen after the Bears signed Edwards for three years and $19.5 million and Tremaine Edmunds for four years and $72 million. They had graded the Bears linebacker group No. 2 in the league last year after those signings. 

Then Edwards became the weakside linebacker and Edmunds the middle linebacker.

The Jets were rated No. 1 and the 49ers No. 2 ahead of the Bears linebacker group.

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T.J. Edwards‘ first season in Chicago was a success. He earned 75.0-plus PFF run-defense and coverage grades while contributing 13 quarterback pressures as a blitzer. Tremaine Edmunds had a tougher time, posting just a 56.6 PFF grade, but we’re only a year removed from his fantastic final season in Buffalo in which he earned a 90.0 PFF coverage grade.

PFF's Gordon McGuinness pointed out how Edwards graded well in PFF's grading system but also pointed out a little reported fact about the Chicago native. He had 13 QB pressures as a blitzer.

The Bears don't blitz much and don't want to but Sportradar tracked them at 21st in the league at 22.2% of plays. They had to when they weren't generating enough pass rush before defensive end Montez Sweat was acquired. Once they had Sweat, the linebackers and secondary could stay put and the interceptions followed until they tied for the league lead with 22.

McGuinness didn't hold last year's less impressive season by Edmunds against him.

"Tremaine Edmunds had a tougher time, posting just a 56.6 PFF grade, but we're only a year removed from his fantastic final season in Buffalo in which he earned a 90.0 PFF coverage grade," McGuinness wrote.

It's also accurate to point out Edmunds missed much of training camp and all of preseason due to injury, which set him back early. He tied for the team interceptions lead with four and all of those, as well as six of his seven pass breakups, came in Week 7 or later.

Edwards had a career-high three interceptions while making 155 tackles, forcing a fumble and recovering two.

The other thing not measured by PFF analytics were what the two veterans in their prime brought to the defense in leadership, especially with so many young players on the field. Tyrique Stevenson, Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon, Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens all played extensively with less than two years experience.

"When we brought Tyrique in last year, we leaned on Jaylon, we leaned on Tremaine and TJ and all the guys there," coach Matt Eberflus said. "You can learn a lot from the guys that have been successful in this league and we certainly do that with every position."

The third linebacker often goes forgotten but is nonetheless part of this group. Jack Sanborn played only about a quarter of the snaps at strongside linebacker because the Bears are in nickel much of the time.

"Jack has a really important role for us," linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi said. "In base, he's the starting Sam linebacker. And then he really plays four different (backup) spots. He plays Sam linebacker, he backs up at Mike, he backs up at Will and he's almost like a backup nickel sometimes.

"He's a–excuse the pun–a jack of all trades, you know what I mean? He's so smart. He's able to give us all this position flexibility because he can operate in multiple spots."

Borgonzi expects big things from them, like PFF does.

"You think about it, we played 17 games, about over 1,100 game reps, thousands of practice reps," he said. "Compared to last year when we were going into it with no reps, you have everything to teach off of, to learning experiences, they understand the system.

"So it's been awesome just to have that consistency in the (linebacker) room and they feel like we can really hit the ground running."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher 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.