One of the most highly sought commodities in the days before the trade deadline every year is pass rush ability.
Teams use multiple rushers to keep players healthy and accumulating as many players capable of this can impact every aspect of a defense's play. The Bears found out how much this matters when they acquired Montez Sweat last year.
Whether they pursue anyone else before Tuesdays deadline could very well be determined by what happens Sunday when they're trying to keep up with Cardinals QB Kyler Murray.
If they are looking for someone to complement Sweat they'll have plenty of competition. Almost any team around .500 or with playoff aspirations will be looking.
The way it looks now, it would be surprising if they made a move for any extra rush help and here's why.
1. Dwindling List of Candidates
The names of Cleveland's Myles Garrett and Vegas' Maxx Crosby got tossed around for a while as potentials for edge rusher needy teams, like the Lions. But reports since then say neither team wants to even talk about trading their star rusher. CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani pegged the Giants' Azeez Ojulari, Browns' Za'Darius Smith and Packers' Preston Smith as possibly the top edge rushers in the marketplace.
Because the Bears tried unsuccessfully to trade for Matthew Judon, it's thought they might have an interest in anyone who is available but really, the truth is they wouldn't really benefit much. They're not giving up high draft picks for someone like either of the Smiths, who both used to terrorize them in Green Bay. Both are into their 30s but the Packers probably would have little interest in dealing Preston Smith to a divisional team. Ojulari has skills but with only 43 games played, he's always had injury problems in four seasons. He has 22 sacks in four seasons but is more of an edge for a 3-4 than a one-gap pass rusher like the Bears use at end.
2. They Already Rush Well
They've risen from next to last in the league last year and last the previous year to 12th in sacks with 20, the same number they had for the final nine games last year once Sweat arrived on the scene. It goes far beyond sacks, though.
The Bears are 10th in hurries at 9.6% according to Stathead/Pro Football Reference. A hurry is forcing the QB to throw before he wants or by flushing him out of the pocket. They are eighth in pressures at 27.6%.
To the Bears, it's all about the pressure and forcing takeaways.
3. The Big Picture Looks Good
The whole point of the pass rush for the Bears is rush and cover. It's a two-part system complementing each other. How much better can they get when they lead the NFL in passer rating against like they do, and when they're No. 1 in red zone scoring and red zone touchdown percentage allowed? They held a top-four offense to four field goals until a lucky break on the final play by forcing them to kick field goals.
"The guys have done a tremendous job in that part of the field of understanding the urgency that you need and understanding that our goals are field goals and takeaways," defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. "We want to take the ball away or force field goals. Their urgency went up. We had to do things to defend the run. We had to do things in terms of affecting the quarterback. And everything was exactly what you wanted."
More interceptions might occur if they had a little more pressure but then again, more might come when they finally get their two vital, injured members back in the secondary, Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker.
They don't keep statistics on percentage of Hail Mary's stopped. They might benefit if they had a strong pass rush on that one play but Sweat was out with a shin injury and appears on track to return this week after he played only 50% of plays last week. Without Sweat in, the full rush stands to look weaker. They have three other pass rushers in the top 20 in ESPN's pass rush win rate largely due to Sweat's presence.
"The other benefit of having a person, a player like Montez, is, as you’re probably aware of, some of the rush production is spread out amongst the other guys on the defensive line," Washington said. "We're the sum of our parts, if you will. If you're gonna focus your attention on Montez then the person away from his alignment has got to be productive."
4. They Might Already Have Their Answer
The younger rushers haven't really made big impacts but Darrell Taylor has been top 15 in pass rush win rate all year off the edge and they just got back Jake Martin on Sunday after he'd been on IR all season. He only played 15 plays.
"The energy was obvious, his energy, the speed, the quickness, the toughness," Washington said. "I thought he did some really nice things as an edge rusher. I thought he was in position a couple of times to not only affect the quarterback but to hit him and I am looking forward to him taking a pretty significant leap this week."
If he doesn't, or Sweat has an unforeseen issue regarding his injury, then the rush need looks a little more severe. But the help they're getting with tackle, with Andrew Billings fifth among interior linemen in pass rush win rate and Gervon Dexter 11th, has balanced out the rush and could continue to do it, provided they don't lose Sweat long term.
If that happened, then it's essentially every man for himself up front and the Bears are back almost to where they were in the pass rush in 2022.
And then a trade wouldn't look bad. But there is only one game for all of these scenarios to occur and then after that the Bears' defense will be what it is.
Right now that's pretty good when you can hold a high-scoring team to 18 points, or four field goals and a fluke. If they do something similar to Kyler Murray and a potentially explosive Cardinals attack, expect deadline to come and go without their name mentioned in relation to pass rushers.
