Anthony Heron

My hope is that

you see a healthy Jalen Johnson, a healthy Kyler Gordon, because both guys are at an age where they're kinda just entering what should be their physical prime.

So I feel good about the idea that at 26 years old, both those guys are gonna get back to full health.

Can they sustain it?

Can they maintain health?

Because it's been a question with each of them to a certain extent.

Last season was the most extended time that either of them have missed in their career, and it happened to just come in unison, and you could have used both of them that much more.

So the D-line, a guy like Austin Booker, it'd be great to get another step to see him go to another level, but a lot of the guys who we would be hopeful about whether or not

they can really provide more pass rush pressure, are already fairly veteran at this point.

So Austin Booker's a guy you say, all right, that's a really young football player.

We possibly haven't seen anywhere near the best of Austin Booker, but I feel like we've got a sense for Sweat and Jarrett, a dang bow when he's healthy.

Dexter, again, good football players, but are these guys who suddenly are going to become one of the most ferocious pass rushing units in the league?

I'd be pleasantly surprised if that ended up being the case.

So the secondary to me is, again, where I think the Bears are likely going to have to lean just to see how much can they get from those guys as far as adding to the blitz package, adding pressure on the quarterback, but also their coverage abilities on the back end.

Because Jalen Johnson, Kyler Gordon, those are Pro Bowl-level players when healthy.

I like the idea of spreading it out.

That's always sort of suited my sensibilities in a lot of ways in life.

For the Bears, when you have, let's say, a Khalil Mack, who's a recent example that the franchise has had, where you say, there's a big ticket item, and you need somebody to go out there and deliver in a way that just sort of tilts the field, where the entire defense can revolve around that individual talent, because you know the entire opposing offense is going to revolve around trying to stop that one guy.

The Bears don't have one of those dudes.

So what do you need to do?