Tremaine Edmunds Not Alone as Bigger Bears Defender

First Jaquan Brisker referred to Bears middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds as 6-foot-8.

Then quarterback Justin Fields expressed frustration at having difficulty getting the ball over Edmunds' long reach.

"Yeah, I mean goodness gracious, we had one play today where if it was any other linebacker in the country, I mean he would have been open," Fields said. "Just his presence. He's so huge."

Then offensive coordinator Luke Getsy upped the ante.

"Justin said it best the other day," Getsy said. "We have a scheme that should take advantage of somebody in the middle of the field, but the dude's like 7-foot tall. And the wingspan—that's not happening. 

"And he’s (Fields) right. He shrinks the windows for sure in the pass game, and his ability to play sideline-to-sideline just really challenges an offense to be able to capture the edges."

Check back next week and Edmunds might be towering over Victor Wembanyama, the NBA's first draft pick who is 7-foot-5.

Edmunds is big. He's not 7-foot-5, but he's big. He's also very fast for a big man. And he has an 83-inch wingspan, which puts him in the top 2% of all linebackers measured in the draft since 2011 by Mockdraftable.com.

He's actually just 6-5. That's plenty tall enough for the Bears offense on a daily basis, though.

"Obviously I understand what my size brings to the table," Edmunds said. "I'm just working on being able to mesh with my brothers and being able to go out there and execute and make plays."

Since his growth spurt as a sophomore in high school, Edmunds has had this asset. 

He's just as impressed with the size/speed of other players on his defense.

"Even Brisk is a big safety (Jaquan Brisker)," Edmunds said. "BoJack (Eddie Jackson) is a big safety. We got guys all around. That’s amazing. You got big guys that take up a lot of space. 

"That eats up a lot of ground, and that's dogs that can play football. That's special and definitely something to be excited about."

It was done on purpose in the offseason. The Bears got bullied on defense last year by running games and by opponents' short-passing attacks.

The idea of the defensive scheme they are in is to emphasize speed, but giving up size for speed isn't necessarily the idea. So they set about adding bigger players who didn't give up much quickness or were even quicker, like Edmunds.

There are seven different players in starting positions on the Bears defense this year and between the seven they  avearage over half an inch taller and 18 pounds heavier than the players who were in their positions last season. 

DeMarcus Walker and Rasheem Green at the end positions are 51 combined pounds heavier than last year's ends. With Yannick Ngakoue now added, this can change if he is starting in the base defense.

Nose tackle Andrew Billings is 21 pounds heavier than Armon Watts was at nose.  

Edmunds represents a 5-inch height advantage and 25 pounds more than Nick Morrow brought last year before being moved from middle to weakside. T.J. Edwards is 10 pounds heavier than Roquan Smith was at weakside. He's 17 pounds heavier and an inch taller than Morrow was when he got moved to weakside. Jack Sanborn is 2 inches taller and 7 pounds heavier than last year's initial strongside, Matthew Adams.

Both Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith, battling for starting left cornerback are 15 pounds heavier than last year's starter, Kindle Vildor. They're both an inch taller.

Size is one thing, but they give up nothing in terms of playing speed.

Edmunds might like the size, but the edge the defense is showing in practice is what he really enjoys. 

The hooting and crowing by defensive backs in Wednesday's practice shows a side the Bears didn't have last year when they were mauled and intimidated.

"It's amazing," said Edmunds, the former Buffalo Pro Bowl linebacker. "That's the kind of edge you wanna play with. I felt right at home, as I’ve been since I got here.

"Just seeing our guys compete, I think that’s the No. 1 thing. We talk about it each and every day. To actually see it, to actually feel it, I think if you were just a fan out there, watching, you felt that."

Former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai used to talk about wanting a defense that's palpable. The Bears were exactly that in Wednesday's practice and they want to take that to games.

"Defensively, that's what you want," Edmunds said. "You got a lot of dawgs over there, a lot of guys are stepping up and growing up fast. 

"It's not the old guys, it's the younger guys. You hear Jaquan Brisker, you hear Kyler Gordon, you hear all those guys. Even rookies coming in making plays and playing with a chip on their shoulder. That’s what we want on defense. We want to be an attack defense, and you feel that and you feel that energy."

It could feel a lot less pleasant for offenses when they're getting hit by defensive players who bring size with that energy this year.