{"id":482835,"date":"2025-12-31T17:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/482835\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T17:14:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:14:25","slug":"data-study-ranking-edge-options-for-bears-to-pursue-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/482835\/","title":{"rendered":"Data study: Ranking EDGE options for Bears to pursue in free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Bears have struggled significantly with generating pressure with their four-man rush in 2025. Just about anybody who\u2019s watched them over the course of the season could tell you that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Heading into Week 17 of the 2025 season, Chicago had generated the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jacobinfante24\/status\/2004685706917281887?s=20\">second-fewest pressures<\/a> of any team in the NFL. They\u2019ve paid top dollar for the defensive end tandem of Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo. This offseason, they also shelled out big money to defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and used a second-round pick on Shemar Turner for the interior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, Odeyingbo was a disappearing act before going down for the year to injury. Turner didn\u2019t do much before moving to the edge and quickly suffering a season-ending injury of his own. Jarrett hasn\u2019t done much of note himself, and though Sweat has fared well with 9.5 sacks with one remaining game, his pass-rush win rate and ability to consistently generate pressure still hasn\u2019t been up to par with his massive salary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Bears don\u2019t have a ton of cap space this offseason, but they have the ability to create some with roster cuts, potential trades, and restructuring of contracts. If they create some cap space, odds are strong they\u2019ll look to address their defensive line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But who are the best free agent edge rushers in the 2026 class?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There are several different ways to measure a player\u2019s value going into free agency, and I decided it would be a good idea to combine them to find one cumulative way to figure out who the most valuable assets will be on the open market by making my own grading scale called the Value Grade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To create the Value Grade score, I took each of these factors into account in my formula:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1nfb3k4i feuejx0 ls9zuh1\">\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Each player\u2019s age at the time of signing a contract in 2026 free agency<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/nfl-edge-rankings-impact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PFSN\u2019s EDGE Impact scoring<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/nfl\/grades\/position\/ed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PFF defensive grading<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Sacks divided by games played in 2025<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Pressures divided by games played in 2025<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Pass-rush win rate (from PFF Premium)<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Run stop percentage (from PFF Premium)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">I chose these criteria for specific reasons. For starters, a player\u2019s age usually determines how long-term of a contract they will receive. The PFSN and PFF grading scales are the two analytical scoring models I respect the most. Note that the two are different; a 70.0 on PFF\u2019s scale would rank 44th in the NFL for edge rushers, while a 70.0 on PFSN\u2019s scale would tie for 81st. I\u2019ve accounted for that in my formula. I also felt that efficiency on passing and rushing downs should be valued, with a slight edge to passing after ranking in sacks tallied per game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Without further ado, these are my edge rusher rankings for the 2026 free agency class, as sorted from best to worse by my own Value Grade system.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_1eezmj01\" href=\"https:\/\/platform.windycitygridiron.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/180\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-29-at-11.15.01%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\" data-pswp-height=\"883\" data-pswp-width=\"2191\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img alt=\"\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"w91vxg0\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-29-at-11.15.01\u202fPM.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As is the case with any form of data measurement, this shouldn\u2019t be the end-all, be-all in terms of figuring out which players are the best. This formula only factors in this year\u2019s production, and it doesn\u2019t account for previous time missed due to injury in previous seasons. If you have any suggestions in the comments on how I can adjust my formula in order to do so, feel free to let me know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That said, I\u2019m not surprised that Trey Hendrickson comes away as by far the top free agent edge rusher by my Value Grading system. Big names like Khalil Mack and Jaelan Phillips also predictably ranked pretty high, and I find myself much more intrigued by how well-rounded Odafe Oweh has been this season, pairing up with his elite physical attributes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">By these measurements, the Bears should avoid paying top dollar for players like Arnold Ebiketie, Kwity Paye, A.J. Epenesa, and Boye Mafe. Though the allure might be there because they\u2019re on the younger side, they haven\u2019t been efficient this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">I\u2019ll create a similar formula for defensive tackles and publish my findings in another article at Windy City Gridiron. If there\u2019s enough interest, I may create formulas for every NFL position. For the time being, though, this shows which edge rushers Chicago should pursue the most this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bears have struggled significantly with generating pressure with their four-man rush in 2025. Just about anybody who\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":482836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,193211,43644,43642,192894,834,5386,1818,210995,12641],"class_list":{"0":"post-482835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-bears-analysis","10":"tag-chicago-bears-free-agency","11":"tag-chicago-bears-roster","12":"tag-from-the-desk-of","13":"tag-general","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-illinois","16":"tag-inside-the-numbers","17":"tag-notes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115815310894928123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}