Tremaine Edmunds (49) Shawn Dowd / USA TODAY NETWORK

What Leslie Frazier texted Bears coach after signing Tremaine Edmunds

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 3/16/23

The Chicago Bears needed a replacement in the middle of their defense for Roquan Smith after he was traded to the Baltimore Ravens. Tremaine Edmunds just happened to be available.

The Bears and Edmunds agreed to a four-year, $72 million contract at the start of free agency, essentially swapping Smith with a 24-year-old two-time Pro Bowler and prompting Edmunds’ former defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to text head coach Matt Eberflus, according to the Bears, to congratulate him on landing "one of the premier linebackers in our league.”

Have y'all considered that Tremaine Edmunds got paid a lot of money because Eberflus wants to go back to having Cover-2 as a club in his bag and he didn't want to do it with Roquan (because he's 6'1"), and he wants his pole runner to be a 6'5" giant so he's hard to throw around. pic.twitter.com/1JMxNiXSXQ
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) March 14, 2023

“Five years in the league and he's 24 years old,” Frazier told the Bears official website. “He's really ascended. He's not a guy who's reached his peak by any means. And he's a tremendous leader as well. Not only is he a good football player — a guy who can make plays — but his teammates, they really gravitate to him, and they look to him to lead, both on the field and off the field, in the locker room and the classroom.”

Frazier coached Edmunds since 2018 as Buffalo’s defensive coordinator. He recently stepped away from the Bills to take 2023 off from coaching.

I am so grateful to the Bills organization for giving me my first NFL opportunity. Buffalo is a special city that will always be close to me. I appreciate the fans, the coaches and the entire Buffalo community for embracing me and my family. Thank you for five amazing years!
— Tremaine Edmunds (@maine_savage23) March 16, 2023

Edmunds has started 74 games over five seasons, logging 565 tackles, 32 tackles for loss, 35 passes defensed, 6.5 sacks, five interceptions and two forced fumbles. He’s totaled 100 or more tackles every season — leading the Bills in tackles in four of them — and he made the Pro Bowl in 2019 and 2020.

Adding Edmunds bolsters a Bears linebacker group that suffered several losses. Smith was traded to the Ravens midseason, while Nicholas Morrow and Joe Thomas — Chicago’s leading and seventh-leading tacklers, respectively — plus Matthew Adams are all free agents.

Edmunds will join Jack Sanborn, who totaled 64 tackles, five tackles for loss and two sacks after Smith was traded, and Trevis Gipson in the middle of Chicago’s defense.

More must-reads: