The Bears began the offseason saying they needed to rush the passer better.
Then they didn’t sign an edge rusher of significance. Or trade for one. Or draft one. Or even grab a veteran on the eve of training camp.
When the Bears took the field for the first day of camp Wednesday, they had the same top three edge rushers that helped produce the second-worst defensive line pass-rush win rate in the NFL last year.
It doesn’t sound like that’s going to change any time soon.
“We’ve got to make sure we know our team,” general manager Ryan Poles said Tuesday. “So, we evaluate on a daily basis and see what we need to do.”
If the Bears decide they need to add one of the few veterans left on the free-agent market — Joey Bosa, Jadeveon Clowney and Brandon Graham are among them — it will be only after they’ve exhausted every option on their roster.
“We can cross that bridge if we ever need to go across it,” Poles said.
The fact is, if the Bears thought there was a fit on the free agent market, they would have signed one by now. The household names who are available are aging role players. The one star that might prove available, Maxx Crosby, might just stay with the Raiders. When the team made him available before a scuttled trade to the Ravens, the Bears thought the Raiders’ asking price on him was too prohibitive, anyway.
Any long-term answers at edge rusher will have to wait until next offseason. Until then, will rely once again on Montez Sweat, Austin Booker and Dayo Odeyingbo. Sweat will miss the first few practices because of an illness, while Odeyingbo’s return to health has been a pleasant surprise after he tore his Achilles’ tendon following eight games — and just one sack.
Minutes before the Bears took the field Wednesday morning, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was as animated as he’s been in his tenure with the team when describing how the team needed to improve on passing downs.
“There’s a lot been made of the pass rush, right?” Allen said. “There’s no example of team defense that it’s better exemplified than in pass defense. Because I don’t care how good your pass rush is, if [defensive backs] don’t cause the quarterback to have to reset or get to his second or third read you’re not getting to him. And I don’t care how good your coverage is, if you can’t get to the quarterback and disrupt him they’re going to throw completions. So, I think we’ve got to get better at pass defense, all right? And I think that’s both elements working together. And so I think that’s what our focus is.
“Our focus is not necessarily this area and this area, it’s completely as a team, how are we going to improve as a team. And I think we all take a part of that. Coaches, players, scheme, fundamentals and technique, all of those things play a part in that.”