Why Bears could flip-flop positions for TJ Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds
The Bears have been tinkering with moving their fourth highest-paid player to a new position.
Not that Tremaine Edmunds thinks it would be too big of a deal to move from middle linebacker, where he played under Matt Eberflus, to weak-side linebacker.
“I’m gonna do whatever they put me out there (for),” he said recently. “Whatever position is out there, whatever they want me to play, I’m going to do my thing. I’m going to leave it up to the coaches.”
New Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has been playing both Edmunds and TJ Edwards at both positions during training camp.
“Tremaine and I are both still kinda doing both,” Edwards said Sunday. “Honestly, it really helps us learn the defense and just understand big picture wise what we’re doing. I think we’re both comfortable in either role. And as you know, as we start getting closer here, those things will start to get determined and decided in that way.”
Eberflus preferred using Edmunds in the middle of his Tampa 2 defense. The job of the middle linebacker in that scheme was often to drop deep into coverage downfield, and Edmunds used his height to help disrupt passes down the seam. That same size — he’s 6-foot-5, 250 pounds — could be even more disruptive in open space at weak-side linebacker under Allen.
Edwards played middle linebacker with the Eagles before the Bears signed him as free agent in 2023. He signed a two-year, $20 million extension in April.
Edmunds has a $17.4 million salary cap hit in the third year of a four-year, $72 million contract.
Allen, the new defensive coordinator, has been stressing multiplicity all camp, lining up safeties and cornerbacks all over the field in dime coverage with hopes of confusing quarterbacks this offseason.
Communication lacking?
One day after coach Ben Johnson was visibly frustrated by the Bears’ pre-snap penalties, the team held a walk-through — and undoubtedly tried to talk through some of their delay of game and illegal motion issues.
“The big thing is communication with everyone,” right tackle Darnell Wright said. “We need to do a better job of that, probably. That’s what we need to do as a whole, just communicate, obviously, in the huddle.”
Williams seems more confident than he did last year, Wright said, even as he works through those issues.
”Obviously, he’s a second-year player,” he said. “There are still things, as you’re learning, there’s stuff to go through, but he’s a little bit more confident and poised.”
Reunion with McDaniel
Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower will catch up with Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel when the two teams share a joint practice Friday.
Hightower shared an offense with McDaniel — as well as future coaches Matt LaFleur and Robert Saleh — when they were low-level Texans assistants from 2006-08. They worked together again in Washington between 2011-13 and with the 49ers from 2017-20.
Hightower said he knew he’d be special.
“You kind of see who wants to grind, who wants to work, who has the X's and O's down, who has great personality … ” Hightower said. “I've been fortunate. I know what a good coach looks like, because I've been around all of them.”
He predicted Ben Johnson would join that list, though he was careful to say he was not trying to “kiss his butt” by making such a declaration.
“Real head coaches have an eye for things when they happen and they're able to anticipate stuff,” he said. “And I'm just telling you ..,. We got a good head coach."