Ryan Poles remained aggressive at the trade deadline. The Chicago Bears general manager is in his fourth year on the job, and in all four seasons he has made at least one trade near the deadline.
This year it was the addition of defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in a pick swap with the Cleveland Browns. It was a relatively low-cost move for a Bears franchise that preferred to keep its high-priority draft picks.
Poles couldn’t forget the game Tryon-Shoyinka had for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Bears in Week 3 of 2023, when he sacked quarterback Justin Fields twice and totaled three quarterback hits. Poles believes the Bears can get more out of Tryon-Shoyinka than the Browns, who hardly used him on defense.
Here’s what the numbers say about the team’s newest addition — as well as what the Bears face Sunday against the New York Giants.
Pressure’s on
The Bears are putting a lot on Montez Sweat, who remains the focal point of their pass rush. Poles is encouraged by Sweat’s recent stretch with a sack in three consecutive games. Sweat has had multiple quarterback pressures in every game this season and has four sacks on the year.
As far as trade-deadline headlines go, the deal for Tryon-Shoyinka was a minor move. But if he can be the player he was in Tampa, it could be a modest improvement for the Bears.
In four years with the Bucs, who drafted him with the 32nd pick in 2021, Tryon-Shoyinka had QB pressures on 10.2% of his pass-rush opportunities, according to NFL Pro. His sample size in Cleveland was too small (just 31 defensive snaps) to glean anything from.
If Tryon-Shoyinka can pressure the quarterback at a 10% clip, that would be an improvement over what the now-injured Dayo Odeyingbo was giving the Bears through eight games (7.9%).
Sweat has QB pressures on 11.6% of his pass-rush opportunities. Austin Booker had a 14.8% pressure rate in his season debut Sunday, but that number likely will come down as the sample size grows (Booker had an 8.3% pressure rate last year).
As for why Tryon-Shoyinka wasn’t playing with the Browns, Poles was unconcerned. Tryon-Shoyinka, who signed a one-year free-agent contract with Cleveland, was stuck behind Myles Garrett, Alex Wright and Isaiah McGuire on the depth chart.
“Anytime you go to a new team, you’re going to have obviously Myles Garrett and you’re going to have a couple guys that were homegrown there that got ahead of him and just didn’t get worked in,” Poles said. “They felt comfortable with their depth.”
Tryon-Shoyinka’s speed might be one of his best attributes. His average “pass rush get-off” (which measures how quickly a pass rusher crosses the line of scrimmage) was less than one second every year in Tampa.
“Just persistence, grinding, God-given ability and just putting your mind to it,” Tryon-Shoyinka said of his speed.
A test for the Bears tackles
The Giants bring a 2-7 record to Soldier Field, but Ben Johnson isn’t letting that fool his players. This team is more challenging than the record indicates. Johnson said rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has given the Giants “a spark.”
“Their offense can score some points and they have playmakers,” Johnson said. “And then defensively, you could argue this is the best defensive front that we’ve seen so far this year.”
The Giants present a challenge to the Bears offensive line. Edge rusher Brian Burns leads the NFL with 11 sacks. Per NFL Pro, his 32 quarterback pressures are tied for 13th in the league.
More remarkable is the high rate at which Burns is cashing in on his opportunities. His 12.6% pressure rate is behind last year’s 15.2% mark, when he totaled 8½ sacks for the season. That 12.6% mark is good but not what you would expect from someone leading the league in sacks. The Cincinnati Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson led the league in sacks last year, and his pressure rate was 18.8%.
Burns lines up on both sides of the formation nearly equally. He has 233 snaps on the left side of the defensive line (squaring off against the offense’s right tackle) and 218 snaps on the right side (against the left tackle), per NFL Pro. Burns should challenge both Bears tackles, Theo Benedet and Darnell Wright.
Watch out for the rookie too
Burns isn’t the only scary thing about the Giants defensive line. Dexter Lawrence II is a two-time All-Pro and widely considered one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.
On top of that, the Giants drafted Penn State pass rusher Abdul Carter with the No. 3 pick this year. It’s an embarrassment of riches on the Giants defensive line. They’ve had the luxury of bringing the rookie off the bench, remarkable for a player drafted so high. Burns and 2022 No. 5 pick Kayvon Thibodeaux have been the starters on the edge.
But Bears fans shouldn’t be lulled to sleep by Carter’s one-half sack on the season. He’s playing nearly 70% of the defensive snaps, and his 13.7% QB pressure rate leads all Giants defensive linemen, including Burns. Carter’s 34 QB pressures are tied with Garrett for ninth in the NFL.
Odds and ends
- The 42 points the Bears allowed in last week’s five-point win over the Bengals marked the most they ever have allowed in a victory. The previous high came in a 48-41 win over the Minnesota Vikings in 2008.
- According to the NFL, Colston Loveland became just the fifth rookie tight end in the Super Bowl era (since 1967) to record 100 receiving yards and multiple touchdown receptions. He became the first Bears rookie tight end to do so since Mike Ditka totaled 190 yards and three touchdowns Nov. 12, 1961, against the Green Bay Packers.
- Caleb Williams already has more fourth-quarter comebacks this season (three) than he did all of last year (two). He did it against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 4, the Washington Commanders in Week 6 and the Bengals in Week 9. Among his draft class, Williams’ five career fourth-quarter comebacks trails the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix (seven). The Commanders’ Jayden Daniels has four (five including the playoffs).
- Running back Kyle Monangai’s 176 rushing yards marked the most in a game by a rookie this season. It surpassed Raiders rookie Ashton Jeanty’s 138 yards against the Bears in Week 4. It was the second-most rushing yards by a Bears rookie behind Anthony Thomas’ 188 yards Oct. 21, 2001, also against the Bengals.
- Cole Kmet caught one pass for 10 yards Sunday, which moved him into second place on the Bears’ all-time receiving yards list among tight ends. Kmet is at 2,734 yards, passing Emery Moorehead (2,730, 1981-88). Ditka had 4,503 yards from 1961-66.