Bear Digest

Gervon Dexter Provides Alternative to Adding a Bears Edge

The pass rush can come from inside rather than outside, and if it does Gervon Dexter is showing so far at Bears camp that he can be the source.

Gene Chamberlain

Gervon Dexters Metamorphosis.mp4
Gervon Dexters Metamorphosis.mp4 /
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After Emmanuel Ogbah agreed to terms with the Miami Dolphins Tuesday, it seemed more apparent than ever the best Bears shot at improving their pass rush would be bringing back defensive end Yannick Ngakoue.

He's their external hope. They still have internal hopes.

Besides rookie edge Austin Booker worming his way into backfields and   veteran Jake Martin flashing surprising speed around the corner, they could always get the much-promised interior pass rush to accompany Montez Sweat's rush.

This would mean 3-technique Gervon Dexter stepping up in Year 2 after he flashed skills at the end of last year.

If this is going to be the way they upgrade the pass rush, at least they have someone in the shape to do it.

Dexter has had everyone at Halas Hall raving about his condition after he did the offseason conditioning test that defensive ends normally do, and not tackles.

"I just tried to get in marathon shape, and running with the ends, they run a little longer with less time," Dexter said. "So, I felt like my body was ready to do that."

He's a lean 6-foot-6, 312 pounds after conditioning himself better and changing his eating habits.

"Running, hills, track, there's something called a strongman workout that's for bigger men, all those things," he said.

BEARS DEFENSE MAKES A STAND AGAINST CALEB WILLIAMS AND OFFENSE

CALEB WILLIAMS TRYING TO MASTER EBB AND FLOW OF BEARS OFFENSE

DEMARCUS WALKER'S PASS RUSH VERSATILITY NOW ON FULL DISPLAY

The eating change was eliminating the cursed late-night snack.

"It's different things that I would eat and I was just like, 'man, one honey bun won't hurt me,' " he said to chortling Chicago media members. "So yeah, I cut that out and now I feel a lot better."

The change impressed defensive tackle sidekick Andrew Billings.

"He just looks better, more leaner and all of that," Billings said. "I don't know. I don't really look at his body, I'm about the playstyle. But I’ve seen his get-off change. That’s the biggest thing I've seen."

It's helped Dexter explode more out of his stance.

"We're taking it slow with him, but he's just gotta practice his get-off and then we'll work on the next thing, because he's up now and it's his time," Billings said.

Dexter served early notice he's not just out for a body-building contest. He broke in and swatted a pass up into the air in the first Bears practice of camp. Caleb Williams caught his own deflected pass on that one.

The rush has had moments in every practice where it appears to be giving the Bears offensive line trouble, including Tuesday's during the middle portion of work.

Dexter anticipated improvement even if his conditioning hadn't been much different. It's his second season in a system where he can attack, rather than the two-gap, read-and-react system he played in at Florida.

"I would say the biggest thing for me was the feeling of it," he said. "Like in college ... I played that two-gap system so we would pad back and then now when they're telling you all right just go, I'm like, 'Damn, am I doing it right?'

"So now I know what it feels to, you know what I'm saying, just get vertical and penetrate and disrupt."

Dexter always felt he was made for this type of scheme.

"Words can't describe it, man," he said. "Like I said, my body type, my style of play was a penetrator, disruptor. And I was in a defense that I couldn't do that."

The changed body and technique improvement from one season to the next is creating myths. This one was perpetrated by coach Matt Eberflus after seeing the ball tipped by Dexter.

"I don't know if he actually tipped it," Eberflus said "Dexter is like as big as a mountain. And so it might have hit him right in the chest I think."

Maybe as big as a slimmed-down mountain.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.