Bear Digest

Bears Win High Marks for Ability to Control Middle of Field

According to Pro Football Focus' rankings, the Bears have the middle of the field covered whether it's on offense or defense.

Gene Chamberlain

Cole Kmet beats Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu for a touchdown last season. Kmet is rated 11th best tight end by Pro Football Focus.
Cole Kmet beats Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu for a touchdown last season. Kmet is rated 11th best tight end by Pro Football Focus. / Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
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The efforts of Bears GM Ryan Poles are being reflected more and more as offseaston analysis of the Bears roster and comparisons to overall league talent occurs.

Pro Football Focus' position rankings are projecting the Bears with some of the league's best talent, besides Caleb Williams being ranked 19th among all QBs as a mere rookie. The website had already made the Bears the only team with three wide receivers ranked in the top 30.

The Bears now have two of the top 11 linebackers and are the only team with two of the top 19 tight ends in the view of the analytical website.

The linebacker and tight end rankings showed the Bears have the ability to control the middle of the field on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

Cole Kmet is No. 11 among tight ends and Gerald Everett 19, while T.J. Edwards is ninth among linebackers and Tremaine Edmunds 11th, despite what many have labeled a disappointing first season in Chicago.


In putting Edwards ninth overall, Gordon McGuinness cited Edwards' ability as an all-around defender in putting him ninth, one spot ahead of Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke. PFF has given Edwards run and pass defense grades above 75.0 two straight years with two different teams, a difficult feat to achieve.

Edmunds' grade is borrowed a bit from his 2022 efforts in Buffalo, although PFF's Gordon McGuinness seems to short-sell what Edmunds did last year in the season's second half after he became more familiar with the Tampa-2 scheme.

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"Edmunds’ 2023 season was a disappointment compared to his 2022 campaign, with the 2018 first-round draft pick earning a 56.6 PFF grade," McGuinness wrote. "His 90.0 PFF coverage grade in 2022 was the best at the position, though, so the Bears will expect him to bounce back in 2024."

All four of Edmunds' team-high interception total came after the first six games as he picked up the coverage scheme, according to Sportradar statistics. Often in PFF grades, the start to seasons weighs far to heavily.

The other positive for the Bears from the linebacker rankings by PFF is neither Green Bay nor Detroit has a linebacker ranked in the top 32. Minnesota's top-ranked linebacker is Ivan Pace Jr., who is essentially a pass rusher more than an actual linebacker. He was ranked 23rd. They squeezed Blake Cashman into the top 32, as well, but he just came into their defense after signing to leave the Texans.

The web site The33rdTeam.com has tracked use of two tight ends over the past decade and determines fewer teams are going to "12 personnel," but the Bears have reason to do it now with both Kmet and Everett on the team. Kmet was ranked 11th among tight ends by PFF, one spot behind Evan Engram and one ahead of Dallas' Jake Ferguson.

"Kmet came alive in 2023, earning a 77.7 receiving grade and posting a career-high 719 receiving yards," points out John Kosko of PFF.

As usually is the case, PFF seems a bit slow to the mark as Kmet's career high for TD catches came a previous year. One other aspect of his game that stands out is an ability to improve. He has had a better catch percentage each year he has been in the league, reaching 81.1% last year. That was the best in the NFL for any tight end who had more than 43 targets. Kmet had 90 targets.

Everett's play in OTA 7-on-7 has been more like a wide receiver than tight end and his key statistic in being ranked so high by PFF reflects this.

"He's one of the best at making defenders miss, as he's racked up 45 forced missed tackles over the past three years," Kosko wrote.

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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.