When we last checked the Pro Football Focus top 32 individual linebacker rankings prior of the 2024 season, they had two Chicago Bears ranked in the top half of the league, prompting the question: Do the Chicago Bears have a top-10 linebacking corps? The Bears were one of eleven teams with two players on their list, therefore the odds were excellent that Tremaine Edmunds, ranked eleventh, and T.J. Edwards, ranked ninth, would bring enough to the table to propel Chicago’s linebacking corps into the top ten.
PFF’s most recent ranking series is by position group, and the Bears linebackers are not only in the top ten, but all the way up to number three.
3. CHICAGO BEARS
T.J. Edwards‘ first season in Chicago was a success. He earned 75.0-plus PFF run-defense and coverage grades while contributing 13 quarterback pressures as a blitzer. Tremaine Edmunds had a tougher time, posting just a 56.6 PFF grade, but we’re only a year removed from his fantastic final season in Buffalo in which he earned a 90.0 PFF coverage grade.
Still no mention of strong-side linebacker Jack Sanborn, but PFF graded Sanborn higher than they did Edmunds (67.3 to 56.6) in 2023, which was the fifth-highest defensive grade on the team. He’s an instinctual player who filled in at the Mike last year for the two games Edmunds missed.
Second-year pro Noah Sewell is the next linebacker up if one of the starters goes down, and the Bears signed 25-year-old Amen Ogbongbemiga as a reserve to be a core special teamer.
