Bears GM Ryan Poles weighs in on the process of acquiring Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and how soon the team’s new pass rusher can get involved
The new addition will make his Chicago debut sooner than later.
It was all but certain that the Chicago Bears would make a move ahead of the deadline to address a defense that had been decimated by injuries and the recent season-ending injury to starting defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo upped the need to scour the pass rush market around the league.
Chicago ended up making a deal with the Cleveland Browns, acquiring former first-round pick Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in a low cost move involving a sixth and seventh-round pick swap.
“All I can say is we made calls across the league and I checked up on all the guys you would imagine just to see the availability,” general manager Ryan Poles told reporters of the process on Wednesday. “You get different answers. Sometimes they change if you start three weeks prior, as you get closer things come up and down based on how teams are doing and how they feel about the player… We turned pretty much every stone to find those answers.”
Poles added that he had great communication throughout with head coach Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen in making the best possible move for the team, now and for the future. Being able to hold on to high draft picks was a valued priority for the team and the Bears were able to do that while coming away with a 26-year-old pass rusher with some upside.
Bears expect Joe Tryon-Shoyinka to make his debut with the team in Week 9
Poles added that Tryon-Shoyinka is expected to make his debut with the Chicago Bears this Sunday against the New York Giants but added his role in be to be determined. Based on what we’ve seen throughout the season with the deployment of the pass rush, we can get a clear idea on how things could look after this addition.
Nothing is expected to change with Montez Sweat, who’s played 40+ defensive snaps in six of the team’s eight games this season and recorded a sack in three consecutive games.
The player expected to see the biggest boost in terms of usage is Austin Booker. Booker made his season debut last week and showcased some highlight worthy plays. He’s expected to see more of a role moving forward as the starting edge opposite Sweat.
“I think Sweat’s starting to come on, I thought Book had a good start with that first game,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “I think we’re going to be in a pretty good spot here up-front.”
As for Tryon-Shoyinka, he will be used as a rotational piece behind Sweat and Booker, similar to how the Bears used Dominique Robinson behind Sweat and Odeyingbo earlier in the season. Prior to suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 8, Robinson averaged around 19 snaps per game. While he recovers, Tryon-Shoyinka can start to see some of that share off the edge and bring a boost.
“He didn’t get a lot of time in Cleveland but the tape that you saw, there was a lot of traits to help us both in the run game and the pass game,” Poles said of Tryon-Shoyinka. “Loved the effort and the motor, the range that he has, you know very similar style, few more traits than Dom but like a similar style to Dom. Reliable, dependable.”
And then, once Robinson is back, the Bears will have five capable pass rushers to rotate off the edge. It’s certainly a solid spot to be in for the second-half of the season all things considered and shows how the Bears made the right call with the move they made this week while protecting the future.
“We want to sustain for a long period of time,” Poles added. “We feel like with Joe we can move the needle a little bit and we can continue to get better just through execution. But then also continue to build through the draft so that we can sustain it a lot more rather than throwing if it’s money, if it’s draft picks, that timeline starts to get shorter and shorter once you get there.”
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