Finding Better Bears Rush Men

The Bears continue to work Dominique Robinson, Trevis Gipson and DeMarcus Walker in a defensive end rotation at OTAs.

It sounds an awful lot like there will be company or competition arriving soon enough.

Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus have both talked with media at different times about the possibility of adding an edge pass rusher and on Wednesday at OTAs the Bears coach sounded close to calling it inevitable but possibly a move for after minicamp and later.

"We're interested in a lot of free agents, we're interested in a lot of guys at all positions right now," Eberflus said. "We're just excited about being able to look at those guys and potentially add as we go through camp and getting closer to the season."

Eberflus offered nothing definitive on how players are going to be used if this is the group. Gipson is in the final year of his contract, had just three sacks last year and is not getting a vote of confidence.

"Keep competing," was Eberflus' advice to Gipson. "We've brought some guys in. We might bring in some other guys. We obviously brought some D-tackles in and all that.

"We'll find out where the green rush is. Our pass rush team, in the passing situations, we'll put our best four out there and we'll probably have two more guys that will rotate in that rush group. But it's just all about competition now."

The guys who get the go light—the green group—to pursue the QB in passing situations could include Gipson and/or Robinson. Or perhaps not.

The list of edge rushers out there unsigned still includes Frank Clark, Yannick Ngakoue, Jadeveon Clowney, Justin Houston and former Bears Leonard Floyd and Robert Quinn.

Defensive line coach Travis Smith isn't sure about what could happen but does believe he has someone who will produce pressure and sacks in Walker.

"When I think Chicago Bears football everyone always looks to Monsters of the Midway," Smith said. "Looking at the old, historic, great Chicago Bears defenses, with the Mike linebackers, the whole linebacking group, the front seven, even with the DBs that played, he's a Chicago Bear. He's got the disposition. We say, 'It's not a position, it's a disposition.' That's a quote that we live on. It's a plaque on our wall.

"It's a disposition for him. He's got the right mentally and demeanor to play the front seven or front four, with his violence, with his pad level, with his personality, with how he approaches every snap run and pass. It's a physical demeanor and we are happy to have him here."

The thought expressed by Eberflus after the Bears went without signing an edge in free agency or drafting one was they would produce pressure up the middle and take up double teams inside, freeing their edges to be more effective.

They went to more stout defensive ends like Walker and Rasheem Green to stop the run and force offenses into predictable passing situations. But can this even work?

"Obviously you'd like all four to be able to push it inside and outside," Eberflus said. "That would be some of the elite pass rush groups that are in the NFL right now. We're building toward that."

It can work in his opinion by simple logic. It's a shorter distance to the quarterback up the middle.

"There's been some great ones over the years that have been inside that have definitely affected the quarterback," Eberflus said.

Then again, it's not exactly easy to establish an interior rush when no one on your defense who plays defensive tackle has ever made more than three sacks in an NFL season.

They could always blitz more. Last year they blitzed 18.2% of the time, 25th most in the league.

"There's been years that, back when I was the defensive coordinator, that you would send more pressure, you would blitz guys that are second level of pressure players, be it linebacker or safety, that type of thing," Eberflus said. "We've certainly done that and got a handful of sacks out of those guys.

"We've gotten 10 sacks out of that group, or more than that. That could be something that we potentially do, but you'd like to generate it from the front four. That way you can have all seven in coverage and you can do more variation with your coverage that way and not opening holes for the offense. Certainly you've gotta pick your poison and pick your time when you want to do that."

Last year the Bears were led in sacks by rookie safety Jaquan Brisker with four.

Eberflus was asked if it's safe to assume he wouldn't want to have a safety lead the team in sacks again.

Eberflus dead-panned: "That would be a correct statement, yeah."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven