Montez Sweat Situation Shows How Clueless Ryan Poles Is About Edge Spot

The Bears' answer this week to the suspension of Montez Sweat and quad injury suffered by Dayo Odeyingbo is to rely on Jamree Kromah, James Lynch and Daniel Hardy and activate Shemar Turner from PUP to complement Austin Booker.

"The good thing is we have really planned for this," Ben Johnson said on Wednesday. "We’ve got some guys on the active roster that haven’t even been active yet. Some defensive linemen that we feel really strongly about and what they did during training camp. This might be their opportunity as well."

It's a good thing they planned for this. Right. Not every team has a Lynch, a Kromah and a Turner, not to mention Hardy.

Come on.

They don't even know if Turner can play. Besides having a torn ACL last year, he only got on the field for a handful of rookie snaps. They badly need a trade for quality's sake.

The Montez Sweat situation speaks to a much broader issue for the Bears than trades or whether he used performance enhancers or masked something or just used a medication triggering false positive.

This casts light on possibly the biggest current Bears personnel problem. This problem can be placed squarely at the feet of GM Ryan Poles. However, it goes back well before him.

Bears draft history at D-end

The franchise that dominated its only Super Bowl season with one of the greatest defensive lines ever has treated the defensive line in drafts like it's unimportant for over 30 years. When they did get serious about it, they almost always failed at drafting defensive linemen, especially ends.

While Sweat wasn't drafted by the Bears, Poles at least recognized what he thought to be an elite talent and paid him accordingly after giving up a second-round pick. When you're bringing in players others no longer want, then you're accepting second-hand material and have to accept it won't be ideal. Sweat has produced, although not at an elite level like his pay said. The second-round compensation the Bears surrendered says they made the right move, though.

Edge rushers are tough to find in the NFL and essential. When Poles made the trade, one of the reasons he did it was the lack of second-round talent available at the position according to how they scouted the draft and future drafts. Indeed, they were right. In the last three drafts since the Bears made the trade, the top edge rusher in a 4-3 defense to be drafted in Round 2 based on sack numbers have been Nick Scourton and Mike Green with 5 1/2 and five sacks total for their careers. A few could eventually do better this year, like Green Bay's Dani Dennis-Sutton, but he has 1 1/2 career sacks.

Meanwhile, Poles got a player for a second rounder who has 23 1/2 sacks in Chicago during that time. Don't start the applause for Poles just yet though.

All this means is the Bears haven't focused their attention on this position when it counts and that's in the first round of the draft. They should have done this despite bringing in Sweat.

Sweat was worth a second but ...

There have been first-rounders in the past three drafts who could eventually come in over 23 1/2 sacks over a three-year period. Go back another year and before Sweat was acquired and Byron Young (31) and Tuli Tuipulotu (28) are the only edge rushers drafted who have more sacks for four seasons than Sweat has had in 3 1/2 Bears seasons.

It wasn't giving up a second-round pick for Sweat that was a mistake. The mistake is the Bears do not focus their draft on getting defensive ends in the first round because that is where the real edge talent always is.

They haven't done it. They haven't had an effective one since Ryan Pace was the GM and they took Leonard Floyd. He has had a decent career with 70 sacks but they let him leave because they didn't think he was worth extending.

Poles can't identify top edge rushers and keep them.

He did draft Austin Booker, but there is very little to go on here. He has barely hit double digits for sacks in his three seasons and he wasn't selected until Ro nd 5. Poles also took Dominic Robinson as a Round 5 edge and how did that turn out?

Expect nothing to change in the future

If you're thinking Poles will now be able to get an edge in Round 1 of the 2027 draft by leaning on Dennis Allen's expertise, guess again. Allen's only history of drafting a top edge rusher in Round 1 was Trey Hendrickson and when he hit double digits for sacks, the Saints let him leave in free agency.

The Bears need a dynamic first-round draft pick at edge rusher and they probably won't get one because Allen's emphasis is always on the secondary and not the line. Just look at who they have on their line. They're going to need cornerbacks in the 2027 draft so they'll get one in Round 1.

Expect they'll turn once again to a second-rounder or later and get the same result they always get in the draft at defensive end. They'll get second-round or later material because they're not serious about this position or improving it.

They're more or less obligated to trade for Khalil Mack to get through this season as a 35-year-old extra edge rusher threat.

Activating Turner, using Lynch, Hardy and Kromah with Booker this week really is their answer at defensive end against Atlanta and it's laughable.

It just shows Poles isn't the only one who lacks an understanding of how vital this position is. It's the whole organization, and you probably need to throw Ben Johnson into that mix because they added a safety this year when the pass rush was a need just like it always is.

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