Help Arrives for Beleaguered Bears Defense

Pass rusher Taco Charlton, Bears linebacker Matthew Adams available now for use on Sundays.

Reinforcements have arrived for a Bears defense that has given up 94 points in the last three weeks.

The team on Wednesday signed journeyman pass rusher Taco Charlton off of New Orleans' practice squad, while activating linebacker Matthew Adams from injured reserve.

Charlton was a first-round draft pick by Dallas in 2017. 

"When I was in Dallas we drafted him there," coach Matt Eberflus said. "He was in Kansas City for a touch with Ryan, so we know the man.

"Good production up to a certain point. I think he had 11 1/2 sacks, 13 TFLs, maybe 76 QB pressures during his course of time in the NFL, so we're excited to have him. We're excited to see where it can go. He's going to be in there for depth for us, a rotational player inside and we'll see where it goes from there."

The 6-foot-6, 270-pound former Michigan defensive end was the 28th pick of the 2017 draft.

Charlton's career never took off and he is now with his fifth team.

He only started 13 games in his career and 2018 was the only season when he made more than five starts. He has 22 quarterback hits and 12 tackles for loss. He's made 92 total tackles.

Charlton was with Dallas for two years, was cut and played with Miami a year, then Kansas City and last year Pittsburgh. He was on Saints roster this year and then cut and put on the practice squad.

The Bears pass rush has struggled much of the year but particularly since they traded defensive end Robert Quinn and linebacker Roquan Smith.

Adams was the starting strong side linebacker before his calf injury and missed five weeks. Prior to that he had played in only three games because he missed two weeks with a hamstring injury.

The interesting part of his return might the possiblity the Bears could go to him as a middle or weakside now and bench Jack Sanborn.

Adams was playing the weakside as starter with Smith staging a hold-in throughout preseason.

Coach Matt Eberflus was thoroughly impressed with Sanborn's production in his two starts against Miami and Detroit, so it seems unlikely they would pull the rookie for Adams.

The Bears cut linebacker A.J. Klein to make room on the roster.

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