We’ve reached the final part of our Chicago Bears building block series, and we’ve reached the defensive line. After going through the roster, we’ve found nine building blocks on the current roster: Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, DJ Moore, Cole Kmet, Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman, Darnell Wright, Kyler Gordon, and Jaylon Johnson.
Now is the time to remind you what we are looking at in terms of building blocks. We have defined a building block by the following factors: age, contract, ability, position, and projection.
Let’s dive into the defensive line and see if there are any names to add to the list.
Dominique Robinson
It’s tough when you go through a position group this large and have 11 names to do that, I have to commit any words to certain players, but here we are. Robinson shouldn’t have been on the roster last year, and he shouldn't be on the roster this year. It was worth the swing in the draft in round five, but the experiment didn’t work out. Time to move on.
No Block.
Zacch Pickens
See Robinson, Dominique. It’ll be interesting to see if a new coaching staff can squeeze anything out of Pickens, who hasn’t succeeded in any way at this point. Pickens will not be successful at this level, barring some miraculous work by Dennis Allen and the new coaching staff. I think Pickens probably keeps his roster spot or maybe lives on the practice squad this year (who’s guaranteeing him a spot on a 53 at this point?), but the Pickens ship has sailed.
No Block.
Jonathan Ford
It’s not great when the Bears pick up a player off the Green Bay Packers' practice squad and he immediately jumps multiple people in the depth chart, but that’s what happened last year. Don’t mistake that statement that Ford is some diamond in the rough. Ford did a decent job for Chicago, but his success was more about how poorly others were playing.
Ford has a chance to stick this year as a rotational defensive tackle, but it wouldn’t be shocking if he didn’t make the team either. Ford made a handful of nice plays last year for Chicago, but there isn’t a high ceiling here either.
No Block.
Daniel Hardy
I think a lot of Bears fans thought that Hardy was a UDFA rookie last year, but not quite. Hardy was a 7th-round pick of the LA Rams a few years ago and spent 2023 on the Bears' practice squad. Hardy had an opportunity in training camp and made the roster, and turned in a solid season.
Hardy’s success was on special teams, where he made some big plays throughout the season, including the blocked punt against the Tennessee Titans that Jonathan Owens returned for a touchdown. Hardy played 85% of the team’s special teams snaps but only played a handful on defense, and in those limited snaps, he didn’t make a significant impact.
Hardy is another one of the Bears’ core special teams players and will most likely make the 2025 roster because of that, but he isn’t a key part of the defense and shouldn’t expect to be in the future.
No Block.
Chris Williams
This trade always confused me. Williams turned in a decent season, and it’s not like the Bears gave up a huge draft pick, but I never understood why you want to give up any capital at all for this player.
Williams will be the Bears’ fourth or fifth DT this year, depending on what they do in the NFL Draft. Williams showed a little bit as an interior pass rusher but really struggled against the run. He should make the 53 again this year, but there’s no reason to think he will be a part of the Bears' long-term plans.
No Block.
Austin Booker
Alright, now that we have those five out of the way, let’s dive into the key six players currently a part of the Bears’ defensive front. I have a feeling I’m going to grade these players a little too tough for many fans' liking, but feel free to disagree in the comments.
Booker needs to be the Bears’ fourth edge this year, where he can get some defensive snaps and see how he develops, but not the third edge that will see significant snaps and is relied upon. If the Bears don’t draft an edge in round one or two this year, they’ll need to sign a veteran edge later to bump Booker down on the depth chart.
Booker flashed a little in the pass rush, but he has a long way to go in terms of stopping the run. Teams targeted Booker when he was on the field and a run was called, and teams had a lot of success doing so.
Booker is a fifth-round pick for a reason; he absolutely could develop into a pass-rushing specialist, but there wasn’t enough flashed during his rookie season to count on it this season. This one could be wrong, but for now, this is how we see it.
No Block.
Andrew Billings
I’ve said this in articles before and on multiple podcasts. What a great signing this was by Ryan Poles, and the affordable extension was also a great move. Billings has become a key part of the Bears' defensive line, but what I keep stressing is that, if Billings goes down with an injury, he cannot be the reason your entire defensive line collapses. He’s not that good.
Billings is a solid nose tackle that can eat up space and can collapse the pocket if need be on pass rushing downs. Billings will even split a double team and hit the offense with a TFL from time to time as well.
But we need to speak truthfully about Billings. He missed half of last season with a torn pec and is now on the other side of 30. Players like Billings can play until their 33 or 34, but those last few seasons are usually as a team’s NT2 that eat up space and don’t get moved off the line of scrimmage, but don’t impact a game.
Billings might turn in another solid season, which could result in another short-term extension, but I can’t see Billings as a key piece of this defensive line moving forward.
No Block.
Gervon Dexter
Dexter took several steps forward last season, especially in his pass-rushing skills. He tailed off and didn’t have as much of an impact towards the end of the season that he did during the first half, but there’s plenty to work with here.
Dexter needs to improve his anchor and his ability to make plays in the run game, but he was better as the season went on last year, and there’s no reason to think that Dexter won’t continue to improve.
I think we are starting to see the ceiling on Dexter. He isn’t going to become a dominant 3-Tech in my mind, but I do think he’s going to become a capable player that will make a handful of impact plays per game. Dexter should remain with this team.
Block.
Grady Jarrett
This one is tough. I like the signing and I think Jarrett is going to add some much-needed leadership to the defensive front, but how much is left in the tank?
From 2017 to 2020, Jarrett averaged over 5 sacks a season. From 2021 to the present, he’s averaged less than 3 sacks per season. From 2017 to 2020, Jarrett’s TFLs were almost 11 per season; since then, those numbers have dropped to 6.5 per season.
Jarrett is still good, but he isn’t the game wrecker he once was. But the Bears are playing for a good player, not a game wrecker, so they know the skills have eroded a little.
Jarrett will be 32 at the end of April, and I just have a hard time not seeing Jarrett’s skills erode a little more over the next couple of years. Jarrett will be helpful when he’s here, but I don’t think that lasts more than a couple of seasons before they part ways.
No Block.
Dayo Odeyingbo
This one is going to sound like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dayo signing. The price wasn’t terrible but I just don’t see a huge upside on his pass rushing ability.
To me, he’s a younger version of Demarcus Walker. He’s shown no consistency in his pass rush and has never had double-digit TFLs in three full seasons of playing full time. Let’s compare Walker’s last three seasons to Dayo’s.
Dayo had 16 sacks, 96 pressures, 21 TFLs, and 100 tackles in 1885 snaps.
Walker had 14 sacks, 118 pressures, 26 TFLs, and 109 tackles in 1878 snaps.
Dayo is five years younger, and that goes a long way. But for fans who were disappointed in Walker’s production in Chicago, have the Bears improved or just gotten younger at a position? And the price to do that is an additional $9 million per season.
Sure, Dayo is young and should improve some, but is it reasonable to expect him to become a truly impact player at his position?
I just spent all that time telling you why Dayo shouldn’t be expected to become some huge addition, but at the same time, Dayo’s production is solid, just not game changing. Dayo is the type of guy that if he continues to play at this level or improves slightly and manages to do it over 4+ years, that’s the type of guy the Bears can rely on moving forward.
Block.
Montez Sweat
Let’s stir up some controversy. Who is Montez Sweat? Is Montez Sweat the man we saw in 2023 who turned in career highs in sacks, TFLs, pressures, and tackles?
Or is Sweat the man we’ve seen in other seasons that has never turned in another double-digit sack season and has been a very good player, but not the game wrecker he was in 2023?
I think when you see a player show who they are consistently, that’s probably the player they are. I understand that Sweat was banged up last year and that may have contributed to the decrease in impact play, but again, at this point, I tend to think that 2023 was a bit of an anomaly and that his other seasons are closer to the player he is.
But Sweat was paid to be the 2023 version, not the version from the other years. When you also keep in mind that Sweat is going to be 29 when this season kicks off, it’s fair to question if Sweat is going to truly be the elite edge defender the Bears expect him to be.
Sweat is very good and is a strong defender of the run, but if Odeyingbo doesn’t develop into a more dominant pass rusher and Sweat isn’t one either, the Bears are going to struggle getting significant pressure off the edges.
If Sweat doesn’t return to his 2023 form, it would not surprise me at all to see Sweat here in 2025 and 2026, and the Bears part ways with him at that point.
No Block.
That concludes our series in which we’ve found 11 building blocks in Chicago. That’s a decent place to start. The Bears do need some more top-end talent (blue chip), but this is a solid place to start as long as the team drafts well moving forward.
It will also be interesting to see if this new coaching staff develops players at other positions than the previous coaching regime. That’s not to say that Matt Eberflus and his staff didn’t develop anyone; they did a great job with the secondary, but we just haven’t seen pieces develop in other position groups like the Bears needed.
Was that issue coaching, or was that issue due to the front office not identifying quality talent outside of the top 60? That’s something we will learn over the next couple of years.