Tremaine Edmunds New Man in the Middle

The Bears will use Tremaine Edmunds as a middle linebacker and not the weakside linebacker according to coach Matt Eberflus

Tremaine Edmunds is getting paid the most and he'll have the prominent traditional position in a Bears defense.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus on Tuesday confirmed for media members at the owners meetings in Arizona that Edmunds will play middle linebacker and not weakside linebacker. Edmunds, 24, signed for four years, $72 million and $50 million was guaranteed.

It only seemed logical considering Edmunds is 6-foot-5 and had a wing span and arm length in the top 5% of linebackers when he came into the league, according to mockdraftable.com.

The importance of this in a Tampa-2 zone like the Bears play cannot be overstated.

In essence, Edmunds becomes like Brian Urlacher was under Lovie Smith in the same scheme, except an inch taller. Urlacher, who played some safety in college at New Mexico, ran a 4.59-second 40-yard dash at the combine. Edmunds ran 4.54.

Last season may have confirmed for everyone what Edmunds can do in the middle linebacker spot as he was graded the NFL's No. 5 linebacker overall by Pro Football Focus and the No. 1 linebacker in pass coverage.

The Bills used him in a traditional role defending the pass rather than blitzing him more last year, as he was in on a career-low 18 blitzes according to Sportradar. He had averaged 64 in his first four seasons.

This would leave T.J. Edwards to play weakside linebacker and be a backup in the middle, although that could also be handled by Jack Sanborn. It's also possible they could play Sanborn at weakside and Edwards at strong side, but teams don't usually go out and sign strong-side linebackers for $19 million as it's a position used basically on running or short-yardage downs.

None of this was addressed by either player when they signed two weeks ago.

"We haven't talked about any of those things yet," Edwards said. "Today was just kinda about meeting everyone and getting to know everyone as best as we can in a short amount of time here.

"I don't really have a true preference. Wherever those coaches see me fit, that's my job to make that role work. I can do both. You can trust those guys. That's why I came here. I believe in what they're doing. That's my job to follow, for sure."

Edwards is basically the same body type as Lance Briggs was in the weakside role for the Bears in the Lovie Smith era, at 6-foot-1, 242 pounds.

This leads to questions about whether Edwards really can fill that role as Eberflus said he needed the weakside linebacker to be a big-play maker and create turnovers. It was one of the criticisms of Roquan Smith when they traded him rather than pay him $20 million.

Edwards has only two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and two interceptions in his career. Smith has one fumble forced, one recovery and eight interceptions in his career.

Edmunds has five career interceptions and two forced fumbles.

With the Colts, Eberflus used Shaq Leonard in the role of weakside linebacker. He had 11 interceptions, 17 forced fumbles and seven recoveries while playing in Eberflus' scheme.

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