Chapter 1: What is the Bears' current pass rusher problem?
Rahimi Harrison-Grody. I don't want to break time. I want to yell at Marshall. Can we handle more Anthony Heron? Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. Time consumed for only one yard. Take a snap at 52. And now they've got him. It's Hendrickson. One play after nearly getting to him. This time he completes the deal.
Trey Hendrickson sacking Patrick Mahomes. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody. That was courtesy of CBS. And every time I hear Jim Nance now, all I want to say is, I don't know, Jim.
I really don't know.
I don't know either. Tony Romo would be right on that if he were saying it now. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody. And that's it. We went over it a little bit at the top of our show. We talked about it with James Palmer a bit, but... The pass rusher of your dreams doesn't appear to be walking through the door for the Bears. But the pass rusher of perhaps Ryan Poles' dreams is still on the Bears.
I do think they deserve time. I think Grady Jarrett got better as the season went on. We didn't know he was going to have to have a surgery, though, and that got reported by Brad Biggs after the fact when he was out for an extended amount of time at the beginning of the season.
Dierodangbo, like we said, we'd love to know which Achilles he tore in 2021, in addition to knowing it was the right one in November of this year, and then trying to figure out that timeline. And then in addition, understanding that Max Crosby was available, goes to the Ravens for the two first rounders.
And then we see that Trey Hendrickson is out here as a free agent, but hasn't found a home yet. I think James is right. I think James knows that Trey has a price in mind, which would make it make sense given all of the consternation he's had over his contract the past two seasons. And then there's also the fact of the matter of there's not a ton of NFL teams who can afford him.
The Bears right now would have to do some very creative accounting in order to get it done.
So the good news for the Bears is that the number one free agent edge rusher is Trey Hendrickson, and he is still available. That's the good news. The bad news is, and I'm using CBS Sports on this one.
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Chapter 2: Who are the potential pass rushers available for the Bears?
And that's why I tend to believe that the help is coming from the draft, point blank, period. The help is coming from the draft.
I don't think it's a bad strategy this time. I do not think that with the 25th overall pick, given who you have on your team, given what your needs are, given that you still have to sign three more safeties, I don't think it's a bad problem. Here's where it gets to be a problem, though. is if you still cannot rush and get home like you want to. You still can't disrupt the passer.
What makes it even worse is we know that the pass rush and run defense are married. A lot of times the Bears think they're getting a good pass rusher. What they get is a good run defender. That's the upside. It's because your defensive linemen still tackle well at the line of scrimmage. We have not seen enough of a pass rush. We've seen opposing quarterbacks get way too comfortable.
See Jordan Love in that first game, for example. And then what we've also seen, and the Packers are another good example of this, they control time of possession like nobody else does in the league. You can run. You can run on the Bears. You can run effectively. Throw the slot patterns, run effectively, and that is a simple, tried-and-true way to win.
Are you familiar with the adage, get you one who can do both? Like, that's the goal here, is to get somebody who can play on the edge and can both stop the run effectively, but also get after the quarterback. And unfortunately for the Bears, they're paying a guy a lot to do that, and he's done... what I would call an adequate job, Montez Sweat. Has he been as consistent as you would like?
Of course not, because Max Crosby exists. You know? Michael Parsons exists. Miles Garrett exists. And sometimes I go back and forth in my own head trying to be like, is that standard... reasonable because we're talking about future Hall of Famers when we talk about them. Can you not just have waves of guys as the last two Super Bowl champions have had?
See, and even on our text line, it's split. 6-3-0. I don't want an old guy or a pre-injured guy. 3-0-9. Cam Jordan in a rotation would be awesome. There's a million different paths you can take here. Or there's the text. People say they don't want an old pass rusher, but then they want Khalil Mack. I think he just gets a pass because he's a former Bear.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I think that's what they remember 12-4. They remember having a chance. They remember things going poorly after that, but they remember we had that one season. And the whole goal here is to make sure that 2025 isn't, quote-unquote, that one season.
Also, we are talking about the line and we are talking about end and edge rusher, but as we've seen, there have been very successful pass rushers out of the linebacker position, specifically in the NFL last season. So I factor that in as well and also acknowledge this question.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do the Bears face in acquiring new pass rushers?
Also, when you look at the sack leaders in the league, you know, Brian Burns is who I'm thinking of when I think he's not your traditional... pass rusher. He's listed as a linebacker, but you know how the Giants used him to the tune of 16 and a half sacks. Second to only Miles Garrett in the regular season. You know, that's a good example. Montez Sweat, of course, listed with his 10.
That put him at 15. You know who is still in the top 20, by the way? Still.
Who?
Von Miller.
Von Miller.
Von Miller had nine sacks.
He's an old guy, but he gets it done.
Jadavion Clowney had eight and a half.
He's not young, and he still gets it done.
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