The Bears didn’t add a headliner as blockbuster deals defined the NFL trade deadline Tuesday. The good news is, neither did any of their NFC North opponents.
After coach Ben Johnson declared Monday that the Bears were “right in the mix” to take a division that “any team could win,” the Vikings, Packers and Lions made nary a trade Tuesday while the Bears simply added Browns backup defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka as a depth piece. Even that might be overselling the matter; Tryon-Shoyinka has played just 31 snaps on defense this season.
General manager Ryan Poles ultimately decided against spending future assets on a significant upgrade. The price was at least right in the move the Bears did make. To add Tryon-Shoyinka, they merely sent the Browns a 2026 sixth-round pick for a seventh-rounder that originally belonged to the Eagles. He’ll be a rental, playing out the end of a one-year, $4.75 million deal he signed in March.
Tryon-Shoyinka, at 6-5, 260 pounds, meets defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s preference for size at defensive end. His pass-rush production is lacking, however.
The Buccaneers took him with the last draft pick of the first round in 2021 and started him in 45 games over four years, during which time he had 15 sacks and 35 quarterback hits. But they didn’t pick up his fifth-year option, making him a free agent last spring.
“I think Joe did everything right for us except get to the quarterback on a consistent basis,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine. “I thought from a run standpoint he was fine, from a drop standpoint he was fine, from a toughness standpoint, he was fine. He did everything [we asked of him]. Obviously, when you think edge rushers, you want to think, ‘Get to the quarterback’ first. And that didn’t show up from a double-digit standpoint.”
The Bears were in the market for an edge rusher after Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner went down with injuries in consecutive weeks. Odeyingbo, who signed a three-year, $48 million deal this offseason, is out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon. The Bears put him on injured reserve Tuesday to make room for Tryon-Shoyinka.
Turner, one of the Bears’ three second-round picks this year, suffered a season-ending injury to his anterior cruciate ligament two weeks ago against the Ravens. After the Bears moved him from defensive tackle to defensive end in Week 6, he immediately helped bolster what had been one of the league’s worst run defenses.
He and Odeyingbo had combined for only one sack this season — Odeyingbo’s in Week 1. Even so, Odeyingbo had started every game and played three-quarters of the snaps, so the Bears need someone to take his place.
The lineup at defensive end remains shaky beyond Montez Sweat, who has had three sacks and forced two fumbles in the last four games. Austin Booker, who had a sack against the Bengals on Sunday in his first game of the year, figures to start. He led the NFL with four sacks before hurting his knee in the preseason and missing the Bears’ first seven games.
Dominique Robinson, who hurt his ankle on the opening kickoff of the Ravens game and didn’t play Sunday, and Daniel Hardy, who let the Browns’ onside kick hit his foot, round out the defensive ends.
The best available edge rushers were dealt Monday before the deadline as the Eagles traded for Jaelan Phillips and the Ravens made a move for Dre’Mont Jones. The Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson, the Jets’ Jermaine Johnson and the Dolphins’ Bradley Chubb stayed put Tuesday.
Two months ago, the Packers got the best available edge rusher at the time when they traded for Cowboys star Micah Parsons. The Bears will face him twice next month, when they hope to still be playoff contention.
NOTE: The Bears signed guard Kyle Hergel to the practice squad and worked out four running backs: Israel Abanikanda, Raheem Blackshear, Montrell Johnson and ShunDerrick Powell.
