Good news for Bears: Edge rushers are 'hands down' the strength of the draft
MOBILE, Ala. — The Senior Bowl thought Clemson defensive end TJ Parker would be a tough get. It was thrilled to be wrong.
‘‘He couldn’t wait to sign up,’’ Senior Bowl executive director Drew Fabianich said. ‘‘He’s like, ‘I’m in.’ I said, ‘Why are you so excited about it?’ He said, ‘It’s the Senior Bowl . . . and I didn’t have a very good year.’’
The 6-3 Parker followed an 11-sack sophomore season in 2024 with a five-sack junior season in 2025. Still, he’s one of the highest-profile prospects in the college all-star game.
‘‘They have some questions, [so] I came here to answer them,’’ Parker said after practice Tuesday at Hancock Whitney Stadium. ‘‘What’s with the lack of production from my sophomore year to my junior year? For me, if you have any questions and there’s an opportunity for me to play some more football, why not go and do it?’’
There are a lot of strong edge rushers in the NFL Draft, and some are skipping the Senior Bowl. Analyst Mel Kiper’s latest mock draft has five going in the first 20 picks in April, including Miami’s Rueben Bain Jr., Texas Tech’s David Bailey and Auburn’s Keldric Faulk.
‘‘The edge rushers this year are the strength of the draft,’’ Fabianich said. ‘‘Hands down. It’s not even close.’’
That’s good news for the Bears, even though they’re drafting No. 25 overall. Edge rusher is high on their list of upgrades, be it in the draft, in free agency or via trade.
‘‘I think that’s an area we’re going to continue to press and get better,’’ general manager Ryan Poles said last week.
The Bears tried to solve this problem last offseason, when they signed the Colts’ Dayo Odeyingbo to a three-year, $48 million deal with the hope he would peak in his age-26 season after totaling 16½ sacks in his first four seasons. He had one in eight games with the Bears before tearing his Achilles tendon. By then, the Bears were touting his ability to move inside on passing downs rather than serving as a traditional edge rusher.
They used a second-round pick on defensive tackle Shemar Turner but moved him to end in Week 6 to strengthen what, at the time, was a putrid run defense. He suffered a torn knee ligament two weeks later, however, and was lost for the rest of the season.
Second-year player Austin Booker finished the regular season with 4½ sacks. Amazingly, that was the most by any Bears edge rusher not named Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn or Montez Sweat in four years.
It has been 19 years since the Bears had an edge rusher they drafted register 10 or more sacks in a season. Fifth-round pick Mark Anderson had 12 as a rookie in 2006.
Still, there are places to find pass-rush oomph beyond the first round. Of the 17 NFL players who finished with 10 or more sacks this season, only 10 — including Sweat — were former first-round picks. The remaining group featured two second-rounders, two third-rounders, two fourth-rounders and a sixth-rounder.
Even more telling, of the 17 players who finished with 10 or more sacks, only six still were playing for the team that drafted them.
The Bears will have free-agent options. Trey Hendrickson is one of the best free agents available at any position. He played only 285 snaps this season with the Bengals because of injury but was still the sixth-highest-graded pass rusher in the NFL by Pro Football Focus. He’ll be a free agent, barring something unforeseen.
Mack will be a free agent in March, too, one year after he signed an $18 million deal to stay with the Chargers. That came just days after the Bears happened to post a social-media video featuring highlights of his time with them in 2018-21.
The Chargers’ Odafe Oweh and the Eagles’ Jaelan Phillips, two players dealt at midseason, round out the top tier of the free-agent edge-rusher class.
And then there’s Raiders star Maxx Crosby, a noted fan of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who grew frustrated with his team when he was put on injured reserve to end his season prematurely. Crosby has pledged loyalty to the Raiders in the past but, with yet another new coach coming in, might be available in a trade.
The Bears will know by the time they reach the draft how desperately they need an edge rusher. Pro Football Focus graded Parker 53rd out of 852 edge rushers in college football this season, in part because he ranked 76th against the run. That devotion to the run is a trait defensive coordinator Dennis Allen values.
‘‘For me, you have to earn the right to rush the passer,’’ Parker said. ‘‘If you can’t stop the run, you can’t rush the passer. I’m physical, so I enjoy stopping the run first.’’
He’ll have to show it this week to stand out in a strong class. So will others.
‘‘They’re the best of the best,’’ said Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton, who had 8½ sacks in each of the last two seasons. ‘‘Obviously, this is where you go to compete, and that’s why I came out here.’’