Grading the Bears' trade for Joe Tryon-Shoyinka

Jay Glazer reported that the Bears were among the teams being aggressive ahead of the deadline. I fully expected them to make a move for a pass-rusher following the season-ending injury to Dayo Odeyingbo, but I honestly thought they were going to acquire a more proven asset.

Tryon-Shroyinka struggled to live up to expectations after being selected by the Buccaneers with the 32nd pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. While he remained in the starting lineup throughout his time in Tampa Bay (where he started 45 games over his four years), he failed to make much of an impact on the stat sheet. He had only 15 sacks with the Bucs and never eclipsed five sacks in a season.

He joined Cleveland on a one-year, $4.75 million deal this offseason and has mainly played special teams for them this year. He's played only 31 defensive snaps over the Browns' eight games and has had 58 snaps on special teams. While he doesn't have a sack, he does have three pressures.

While the Browns have Myles Garrett on one side of their defensive line, it seems like they left the door open for Tryon-Shroyinka to win the starting job on the other side. For whatever reason, that role never materialized there for him. Isaiah McGuire and Alex Wright played a much bigger role there.

It's clear that Tryon-Shroyinka wasn't going to be in the Browns' long-term plans, and he obviously wasn't playing a big role for them this year, so they were probably happy that the Bears called. They probably moved up 20-25 spots in the later rounds of the draft for $4.75 million in a year where they're not competing for a playoff spot. Not a bad trade-off.

From the Bears' perspective, this is as close to a bunt as you can get. They're not swinging for the fences and are instead just playing to get on base. They don't want to rely on 245-pound Austin Booker to set the edge against the run on early downs, and the 260-pound Tryon-Shroyinka gives them another option in that regard. In fact, that was his best asset during his time in Tampa.

It might not be a flashy addition (it's far from it, actually), but Tryon-Shroyinka should immediately step in and be better against the run than any other defensive end not named Montez Sweat. If Austin Booker continues to forklift offensive tackles the same way he did against Orlando Brown Jr., they might be just fine there.

Still, it will be interesting to see what other deals, if any, are made at the defensive end position today. If no one else gets dealt, then it's hard to fault the Bears for adding depth to a room where they're sorely lacking it.

However, if a more proven commodity is later dealt for cheap (a day three pick or another late-round pick swap), then I definitely would've preferred they had gone that route. Overall, I think that puts this move in the B-/C+ range.

Grade: B-