Trading for Montez Sweat was a good decision by the Chicago Bears. His presence was felt immediately in the game against the New Orleans Saints. However, it wasn’t enough to get the team any sacks. There are still serious problems with the entire operation. It starts with head coach Matt Eberflus and his handling of personnel. One major bone of contention I have with him is the ongoing insistence that Justin Jones is the team’s best interior pass rush option. He has 18 total pressures in nine games. Dexter Lawrence has 44 despite playing nine fewer snaps.
Jones wasn’t even the best option the Bears had when the season began. If Eberflus had bothered to do any tape study of the new additions in the off-season, he would’ve recognized that honor went to DeMarcus Walker. The veteran had a career-high seven sacks last season. Though listed as a defensive end, six of those seven sacks came when Tennessee used him as an interior rusher. His only sack this season came against Washington as an interior rusher.
Yet, so far this season, Walker has logged only 40 snaps on the interior. That is an average of 4.44 per game. That is down from 7.29 in Tennessee, or 9.5 if you only count the final nine games when the move became more serious.
That is the primary issue with him and the rest of his coaching staff. They don’t seem to have a firm grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of their personnel. Creativity and forward-thinking eludes them. Their stubborn refusal to recognize Walker is a better player than Jones, which is why this team isn’t playing its best football. Walker leads the team with 24 pressures, and he’s gotten most of them at a position that isn’t his biggest strength. One would’ve thought the arrival of Sweat would convince the Bears to make the change.
Nope.
Not only has Matt Eberflus not applied logic by giving Walker more snaps inside, but he’s not even giving those snaps to younger guys like Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens. He stubbornly keeps giving them to Jones despite overwhelming evidence that he can’t squeeze the pocket enough to make the edge rushers more effective. This is one of several examples of why the man can’t continue being the head coach.
