Rookie camp give Bears good look at possible edge rush answer

The Bears found this out last year when they didn't get the necessary sacks from starter DeMarcus Walker and veteran acquisitions Darrell Taylor and Jake Martin failed to contribute much. As a result, Sweat got beat up with double teams. The rush failed to come from the inside to a necessary extent.

Instead of signing more Martin or Taylor types in free agency to supplement Sweat and Odeyingbo, Poles and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen seem content to rely on the ascension from Booker in Year 2, or hope that fourth-year player Dominique Robinson somehow will show something he hasn't. He has two sacks in three seaons.

They also have Daniel Hardy, who contributed greatly on special teams but not much as a pass rusher.

Jereme Robinson actually fits the Bears edge position better than Booker, his former Kansas teammate, and other current Bears players. Robinson finished college playing at 265 pounds and the Allen mold at defensive end is at 261-287 pounds.

The Bears had to ask Booker to add weight. He played last season at 245 pounds. Hardy also needs to add weight after coming in at 240 last year. Even Dominique Robinson could stand to add a few more pounds after playing at 253 last year.

The reason the Bears like bigger defensive ends for this scheme is their technique demand that requires linemen to drive blockers back in the running game or bull rush more in the passing game. They seek to limit the running game without ignoring the pass rush. So stout ends are needed more than smaller, quicker ends who sell out trying to get around the tackle without being touched. The weight helps.

Chad Reuter of NFL.com rates unsigned free agents and had Jereme Robinson ranked 18th among the undrafted edge players, four spots higher than Carlton, who had 19 college sacks. Robinson might have had a higher total but played through a torn labrum in 2023 when he was Booker's teammate. Then he had to have surgery after the season.

“I got surgery in February, after those six months I felt pretty good after I could hang clean a bar,” Robinson told Kansas reporters. “I felt pretty good, felt pretty confident in my ability to pass rush."

The other Bears undrafted signings among the players who made Reuter's top undrafted player list were 12th-ranked linebacker Power Echols from North Carolina and 16th-ranked wide receiver John Paul Richardson from TCU.

Both of those are players with good football lineage

Richardson, a possession receiver who has good punt return ability, is the son of former Houston Oilers backup quarterback Bucky Richardson. Echols' father Brian, played defensive back for Michigan State and his mother was a college basketball player.

The Bears will keep a close eye on safeties because it's a position where no one is signed for 2026. LSU's Major Burns and Oregon's Tysheem Johnson didn't make that NFL.com list but are safeties who Ryan Poles signed and said he sees as capable of winning roster spots.

Competition figures to be fierce at the weekend camp because the Bears had 80 already signed for 90 spots before their undrafted signings, and they also have invited players for tryouts like Virginia Tech edge Cole Nelson, a 6-foot-3, 251-pounder who had nine career sacks.

Bears undrafted free agents

Deion Hankins, RB, Texas State
Jahdae Walker, WR, Texas A&M
John Paul Richardson, WR, TCU
Xavier Carlton, DE, California
Jereme Robinson, DE, Kansas
Power Echols, LB, N. Carolina
Major Burns, S, LSU
Tysheem Johnson, S, Oregon
Luke Elkin, LS, Iowa
Jonathan Kim, K, Michigan State