MOBILE, Ala. — In the past 25 years, the Chicago Bears have chosen two players specialized in rushing the quarterback from the side who then went on to have a season with at least ten sacks for the team.
Mark Anderson, a fifth-round selection in 2006, achieved a career-high 12 sacks during his first season. Rosevelt Colvin, a fourth-round pick in 1999, had 10 1/2 sacks in 2001 and 2002 before leaving as a free agent.
The only other player who plays on the side of the defensive line to reach at least 10 sacks in a season did it elsewhere — Leonard Floyd, picked ninth in 2016, had 10 1/2 sacks this season for the Buffalo Bills and the same number in 2020 for the Los Angeles Rams.
The Bears have mainly strengthened their ability to rush the quarterback using free agents or through trades, and general manager Ryan Poles filled a significant need midseason when he acquired Montez Sweat and then signed the defensive end to a four-year, $98 million extension.
For coach Matt Eberflus’ defense to reach another level — and that’s the goal — the Bears need a threat to rush the quarterback on the other side from Sweat. Several experienced players will be worth considering in free agency, including Danielle Hunter of the Minnesota Vikings, but ideally the team would pair a new player with Sweat, who will turn 28 in September.
It’s too early to predict how things will go, but if the Bears select a quarterback with the No. 1 pick in the draft, they could think about picking a wide receiver, offensive tackle or player who rushes the quarterback from the side at No. 9. If Poles trades down at No. 9, he could still look for players in those positions in the draft.
UCLA’s Laiatu Latu is the most accomplished player who specializes in rushing the quarterback from the side in the draft and is expected to be a first-round pick after totaling 23 1/2 sacks over the last two seasons. The Pac-12 defensive player of the year also won the Lombardi Award as the best defensive lineman in the nation, and he has displayed impressive skills at Senior Bowl practices this week with some smooth spin moves on the edge and high-level hand usage.
Latu measured 6-foot-5, 261 pounds, so he has good size, but his arms are probably not the ideal length at 32 1/2 inches. For comparison, Sweat was 6-6, 260 at the combine in 2019, and his arms measured 35 3/4 inches. Eberflus places a great importance on length when scouting defensive players.
But the performance is there, and the biggest question for Latu starting next month at the scouting combine will be about medical records. Latu briefly left football after experiencing a neck injury at the beginning of his college career at Washington. Latu had a stinger in practice as the Huskies prepared for the 2020 season.
“I just took a strange hit and got a stinger going down my body that lasted 20 seconds, like many other people feel,” he said.
Latu didn’t feel right afterward, and after an MRI, Washington doctors decided he would need to sit out the season. He eventually needed surgery for a slipped disk in March 2021. The Huskies medical team essentially decided it was not safe for him to continue playing and essentially medically retired him.
Rehab was meant to be a challenging nine-month process. 2 1/2 months after surgery, Latu felt no issues. He was still at Washington and had kept his scholarship but couldn’t play football.
“You can call me stubborn, but I went into playing men’s rugby and really just testing my body, tackling grown men and stuff like that,” he said. “I earned a contract from the Seattle Seawolves to go and play with them for an extended part of time. They’d pay me and give me housing, stuff like that, turned that down. I wanted to chase my passion for football.”
Latu looked for another opinion on his neck injury and met with Dr. Robert Watkins in Southern California. Latu was given the green light to play football, went into the transfer portal and turned into a great find for the Bruins.
Every team here has asked him about his journey and the medical process, and he can point out he had no injury issues the last two years at UCLA.
“Head, neck and heart, those are the three issues that get really tricky for the medical teams,” a high-ranking personnel man said after practice Tuesday at South Alabama’s Whitney Hancock Stadium. “It could be a deal where half the teams pass him and half fail him.”
Sweat had a heart issue when he came out of Mississippi State. He was reported to be diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which results in thickening of the heart walls. Some later said that diagnosis was incorrect, but the official I spoke to said his team removed Sweat from its draft board. Sweat is a clear example of a player with a medical-related issue who can go on to have a productive and durable career despite the questions of highly trained doctors.
On the field, Latu isn’t great defending the run and has had a few instances in practices in which he has struggled to set the edge.
“He’s not overly strong,” a college scouting director said. “He’s willing and it’s not a lack of effort in the run game. You might want him to add some weight if he’s a three-down player. But there’s so many sub packages, if you’re just drafting him to hunt the quarterback, you’re fine.”
In a draft class that isn’t stocked with elite edge rushers, Latu could have skipped the Senior Bowl and kept his focus strictly on preparing for on-field testing at the combine in Indianapolis.
“I was told I could never play football again,” Latu said. “To me, I can’t get enough of it, especially learning from the best of the best while being out here. Really just gaining knowledge and growing.”
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