Chicago Bears apparently not No. 1 on available edge rusher's list

"When I’m there I feel like a leader and like I can influence the young guys and do great things. Hopefully I can get back to where I want to be in Detroit.”

The young guy he'd be influencing, especially, would be Aidan Hutchinson. He'd also be helping Hutchinson by making him tougher to double-team block.

Nothing was said about the Bears.

The Bears do have this need, but it's not for a higher-priced edge rusher.

They've already spent $48 million over three years to acquire Dayo Odeyingbo as a starting edge, the third-highest total spent in free agency for any edge player in this free agent period. and they had committed $98 million over four years already for Montez Sweat.

Smith would rate near the top of available free agents in cost, after he played on a two-year, $23 million deal with Detroit. The deal was terminated in March to free up $5.7 million in cap space.

The Lions got four sacks in eight games after acquiring Smith in a trade with Cleveland, and he had nine total sacks. He made 5 1/2 the previous yar with Cleveland after he had 10 in 2022 with the Vikings.

The Bears' need at this position seems obvious considering their third and fourth edge rushers are fifth-round draft picks, second-year player Austin Booker and fourth-year player Dominique Robinson. Booker made 1 1/2 sacks in his rookie 2024 season and Robinson has two career sacks in three seasons.

A situational veteran free agent looks like their best possible addition, although not at a higher rate as the Bears have $14.7 million left under the cap for all this season according to Overthecap.com.

During minicamp coach Ben Johnson labeled Robinson one of four players who had surprised him with their work.

"He looks the part, for sure," Johnson said. "As we know, O-line and D-line play, it's hard to really gauge too much (without pads), but he does have a quick first step off the ball, and he lined up on our left tackles quite a bit here over the last few weeks and you could tell that he got the edge on him a few times."

Robinson also was lining up over inexperienced tackles Kiran Amegadjie and Ozzy Trapilo besides not having pads on or rushing live against tackles wearing pads.

The Bears haven't seen enough from Robinson in his first three seasons to warrant faith he can take the next step, and besides Booker, their only other realistic edge rusher for the rotation is Daniel Hardy. And they spent part of minicamp looking at converting Hardy into a linebacker. He is a smaller player, about 20 pounds lighter at 240 pounds than the minimum edge rusher's size for Dennis Allen's past defensive schemes in New Orleans.

It's a position screaming out for a veteran add-on, although perhaps not someone who has commanded as much money as Smith. This definitely leaves out Trey Hendrickson via trade, considering his high salary and the lack of Bears available cap space. His cap hit for this year is $15.16 million and his demands for an extension in 2026 would be all but impossible for the Bears to handle from a cap situation. They're currently at $7.2 million over the projected cap for 2026 according to Overthecap.com.

Matthew Judon, Jadeveon Clowney and Preston Smith are other top available players at the position, along with 36-year-old Von Miller.

Finding a reasonably priced option among them needs to be a Bears goal because expecting a big leap from a fourth-year player who hasn't shown much to date is taking a blind leap of faith.