The Chicago Bears left some scratching their heads as they opted not to select any edge rushers in the 2026 NFL Draft. In fact, the only defensive lineman that the Bears selected was defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg out of Georgia Tech, who they took in the sixth round with their final selection of the draft.
While they didn’t bring in any edge rushers, head coach Ben Johnson explained the reasoning, putting some of it on the coaching staff, believing he has the players on the roster to coach better. On top of the coaching, Johnson said he has faith in two players who were injured last year, Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner, in returning to full strength and upgrading their pass rush.
“We’re certainly going to coach better than we did a year ago,” Johnson said. “And like I said before, it starts there. We’ve made a concerted effort in how we’re going to get that done. We are excited about the guys that ended up finishing the season on IR, the trajectory that they were on, both Dayo (Odeyingbo) and Shemar (Turner). When you look at it from the start of the season to the point where they both got injured, we saw growth and we saw them trending in the right direction, in terms of what we want to see on game day.
“I think (Montez) Sweat had one of his better years in the NFL. Whether that shows up in the sack total or not, he’s a very complete player, both in the run game and pass game. I think you saw tremendous growth from (DL Austin) Booker when we were finally able to get him back, as well. The combination of us being able to coach better and those guys taking the next step as part of this system, I think we have some pretty good pieces to work with.”
Last offseason, the Bears signed Odeyingbo to a three-year, $48 million contract, with $32 million guaranteed, but he suffered a torn Achilles injury in early November, cutting his first season in Chicago short. Odeyingbo only had one sack in the eight games that he played, so he’ll have to show this coaching staff that he is not only fully healthy, but can get back to the player they signed to the big deal as well.
Turner is a hybrid type of defensive lineman that the team drafted in the second-round of last year’s draft, but he was hampered by injuries all season from an ankle injury in training camp to a torn ACL in Week 8. The Bears need to find out just who and what they have in the former second round pick.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears HC Ben Johnson sounds off on no edge rushers in NFL draft