INDIANAPOLIS — Nick Bosa has been wrecking offenses for the reason that San Francisco 49ers drafted him with the No. 2 general decide within the 2019 NFL Draft. Bosa was the ultimate hyperlink in what grew to become an elite protection within the Bay Area.
The 49ers’ run of success could be traced again to Bosa falling into their lap at No. 2 in 2019. It was, in some sense, the spark that lit the fuze. He’s the most effective cross rusher within the NFL. He’s a violent sledgehammer that turns even the most effective offensive recreation plans to mud.
So when Alabama’s Will Anderson name-dropped Bosa a number of occasions Wednesday as a man he molds his recreation after, the Bears’ ears ought to have perked up. Mine definitely did.
“I love to do the forklift,” Anderson mentioned Wednesday on the NFL Scouting Combine when requested for his go-to pass-rush transfer. “I like to observe Nick Bosa. I like the way in which he do his bullswipe and stuff like that. I attempt to implement that in my recreation.
“Nick Bosa, Von Miller, and Khalil Mack,” Anderson later mentioned when requested who he research. “I watched these guys closely all through school.”
Chicago received a style of what a dominant Mack might do to opposing offenses. Miller, who scouts have in comparison with Anderson, is among the greatest cross rushers of the final 10 years.
Getting a recreation wrecker is one thing the Bears desperately want on protection.
Unless you simply wakened from a year-long coma, you understand how the Bears struggled to stress the quarterback in 2022.
Robert Quinn received off to a sluggish begin earlier than being traded midseason, and the remaining cross rushers didn’t make opposing quarterbacks break a sweat on most Sundays.
To win persistently within the fashionable NFL, you’ve gotten to have the ability to shield and have an effect on the quarterback. The Bears plan to prioritize the protective half in free company. As for locating a option to stress the quarterback, the reply may be proper in entrance of their face.
“What makes a great pass rusher is just being able to effect the quarterback, not just sacks,” Anderson said. “Get him off his spot, throw interceptions, helping other people make sacks, get him to throw incomplete balls out of bounds. That’s what makes an efficient pass rusher. Not just getting sacks but effecting the quarterback in different ways.”
Anderson recorded 27.5 sacks and 146 pressures prior to now two seasons at Alabama.
Last season, Trevis Gipson led the Bears with 30 pressures in 17 video games. Safety Jaquan Brisker led the group in sacks with 4.
Put merely: The Bears, a group in search of an enormous, quick, lengthy edge rusher that may disrupt an offense by himself, want what Anderson does.
He has face-of-the-franchise potential. He’s a tradition changer—a regular setter.
“It’s about what you have in here [pointing to chest],” Anderson said. “That’s what’s carried me to this point in my life. Always knowing that whatever is going on, my mentality, my mindset is not going to change. That’s what I approach the week of practice and that’s what I approach in a game.”
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The greatest activity in entrance of Bears common supervisor Ryan Poles is discovering the correct worth in a commerce for the No. 1 decide. He has to determine how far down is simply too far down and draw his line within the sand.
Perhaps Poles’ calculus ought to be: How far can I drop and nonetheless purchase Anderson a one-way ticket to Chicago?
“The tradition is nice there and I can inform they’re on to one thing particular,” Anderson mentioned of his assembly with the Bears.
The Bears consider they’ve a franchise constructing block at quarterback in Justin Fields. Anderson confronted Fields within the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship Game and is aware of how harmful the Bears’ quarterback is for opposing defenses.
“He’s a great player,” Anderson said of Fields. “Going into that game, we was like, ‘We got to contain him. We can’t let him run all over the place. We got to make sure he stays in the pocket.’ He’s a fantastic athlete. He’s from Georgia as well, so I’m super familiar with him. I’m super excited and I think he is going to have a really great career.”
As dynamic as Fields was operating the ball final season, the Bears nonetheless desperately want blue-chip, game-changing playmakers.
They at the moment have one on the roster and none on the defensive aspect of the ball. It could be malpractice to let a man nicknamed “The Terminator” get away from them.
“I hope so,” Anderson mentioned when requested if the nickname will stick within the NFL. “But I received to earn it.”
From the motor to the Nick Bosa/Von Miller comps, every thing about Will Anderson is screaming for the Bears to take him.
We’ll see if they’re listening.
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