The Chicago Bears made a splash in free agency with the addition of former Buffalo Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds to a four-year, $72 million deal with $50 million guaranteed. It’s the largest deal for an inside linebacker in the NFL.
Edmunds, 24, is an athletic linebacker who figures to serve as the WILL linebacker in Matt Eberflus’ defense. He’s been a solid run defender and improved significantly in coverage last season with a 90 grade from Pro Football Focus. Last season, Edmunds totaled 102 tackles, including six for a loss, one sack, seven pass breakups and three quarterback hits with the Bills.
Here’s a collection of all of the grades for the Bears’ expected signing of Edmunds, where experts are divided about the move.
ESPN: C
ESPN’s Seth Walder doesn’t endorse Chicago choosing to invest in Edmunds.
Ultimately, the problem here is twofold. First, off-ball linebacker is a non-premium position in the NFL. Paying an off-ball linebacker $17 million is not too different from paying a guard, running back or tight end that much money. Second, the linebacker market was looking cheap. Both Edwards and Germaine Pratt signed reasonable deals on Monday, and there are other linebackers out there if the Bears were set on landing two guys at the position.
Pro Football Focus: B
Pro Football Focus gave the Bears a solid mark for the addition of Edmunds, who was the best linebacker in coverage last season.
The Bears make their second splash of the day at linebacker, adding Tremaine Edmunds, who ranked first among linebackers in coverage grade this past season (90.0).
Edmunds had a rough first four years in the league — he made splash plays here and there but a lack of consistency held him back. He really seemed to put it together in 2022, though, and if he can maintain that level of play the Bears will be in good shape with him and T.J. Edwards at the position.
The Athletic: A
The Athletic‘s Mike Jones praised Chicago for adding one of the best free agents on the board.
After yielding 375.9 yards per game (fourth-most) and a league-high 27.2 points per game, Chicago’s intentions of improving its defense are clear. The Bears opened free agency by adding T.J. Edwards from Philly. Now they get the highly coveted Edmunds, who was No. 8 on The Athletic’s ranking of free agents (and No. 2 linebacker), to further fortify their defensive front. Boasting great size (6-5, 250) and athleticism, Edmunds makes plays all over the field whether against the run, as a pass-rusher or in pass coverage.
Sporting News: A
Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer gave the Bears an A for solidifying their linebacker corps with Edmunds.
The Bears have rebuilt the middle of their defense in a couple moves with more active playmaking overall. Edmunds and T.J. Edwards provide a big 1-2 punch upgrade.
Sports Illustrated: C+
Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame wasn’t a fan of the massive deal for Edmunds at a non-premium position.
While Edmunds is a terrific player and only 24 years old, this is a stretch for Chicago. It’s especially large after it agreed earlier with T.J. Edwards on a three-year deal worth $21 million. The Bears have a litany of needs, and have invested $93 million total into a pair of off-ball linebackers.
If the Bears saw linebacker as such a pressing need, Edwards and Germaine Pratt would have been nearly as effective as a duo, and Pratt signed for a very similar contract as Edwards.
Touchdown Wire: B-
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar likes the addition of Edmunds, but he notes that Edmunds had one great season before landing a haul.
The Bills took Edmunds out of Virginia Tech with the 16th overall pick in the 2018 draft, and waited four years before Edmunds’ football acumen caught up to his insane athleticism. It all kicked in last season, as Edmunds became the complete linebacker the Bills hoped he would be. He amassed two sacks, 10 total quarterback pressures, 91 tackles, 42 stops, and 46 catches allowed on 67 targets for 359 yards, 216 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, 10 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 80.4.
The only real issue with this deal is a big one — Edmunds has had one great season after four that were average to below-average. There are subsequent unknowns to make you wonder, and combined with the size of the contract, that’s where the B- comes from.
Bleacher Report: C-
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport had some concerns about the move for the Bears, especially considering Edmunds has been inconsistent so far in his career.
Edmunds is a wildly athletic, young linebacker who has topped 100 tackles in all five of his NFL seasons. He also won’t turn 25 until May.
But while Edmunds has elite potential, he hasn’t produced at an elite level.
He was solid in coverage last year, but over the course of his entire career, he has been inconsistent in that regard. And in addition to the newly acquired Edwards, the Bears already had youngster Jack Sanborn, who flashed at times as a rookie in 2022.
For a Bears team with holes all over its roster, sinking this much money into a position they had already addressed is…interesting.
Walter Football: B-
Walter Football has some doubts about Edmunds after an underwhelming start to his career.
It’s remarkable how quickly things can change. The Bears had one of the worst linebacking corps in the NFL entering today. Yet, in a span of about four hours, Chicago can now say it has one of the best linebacker tandems in the NFL.
We’ll have to see if that comes to fruition. I don’t have doubts about T.J. Edwards. Tremaine Edmunds, on the other hand, was awful to start his career before enjoying a terrific 2022 season. It remains to be seen if he can continue his high level of play, but there’s no doubt that the 25-year-old Edmunds has huge upside. This signing certainly comes with a high level of risk, which is why I’ve given the move a B-, but it could certainly pay off if Edmunds continues to develop.
Bears Wire: B+
Bears Wire’s Brendan Sugrue likes the addition of a young, athletic linebacker like Edmunds in a front-loaded contract that won’t handcuff the team down the line.
The Bears were unwilling to pay Roquan Smith $100 million and guarantee his $20 million. Part of that was due to how Eberflus viewed him and what he brought to the table. He’s looking for long and athletic players who can fly around the field and make plays on the football. That’s Edmunds and he’s still ascending as a professional. He has all the physical tools to play the middle linebacker position in Chicago at a high level. He just needs to do it consistently, which was an issue at times earlier in his career.
The only knock that’s keeping this signing below an A is that the Bears doubled down at the linebacker position after just agreeing to a modest deal with Edwards. For having such a deep group in free agency, did it make sense to go after Edmunds and outbid other teams for his services when there were/are other pressing needs? Regardless, there’s no question the Bears made themselves better on defense with this move and being the team that had the worst record in the last last year, they needed to make a splash.
