The Chicago Bears' defensive line underperformed last season, and veteran Grady Jarrett is excited to change the narrative this seaosn.
Grady Jarrett isn't oblivious to the outside noise that's surrounding the Chicago Bears' defensive line.
In his first season with the Bears. Jarrett finished with just 1.5 sacks on a team that consistently struggled to apply pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The Bears signed Jarrett to a three-year, $43.5 million contract with $27.25 million guaranteed.
The 33-year-old veteran dealt with a knee injury early in the season, which forced him to miss three games. In the NFL, injuries are essentially a guarantee, but players are expected to perform, and if they don't, that outside noise will fester.
"Yeah, we all got cell phones and internet, so," Jarrett said. "No, so we hear it, man. But it also comes with the job, you know, it comes with the job. And at the end of the day, we gotta really take it personal and get back to work. Even if sometimes your best ain't good enough. So you gotta find out ‘Where can I be better at? Where can I …’ So it all goes together. But all we can do as a unit is look in the mirror and challenge ourselves every day to go be better and do what we need to do to have better output."
Jarrett wasn't the only one who dealt with injuries last season. Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner endured season-ending injuries in back-to-back weeks. Just having a healthy line could be a major difference for Chicago's defense.
"We all were kind of bit someway somehow by the injury bug last year, but that all goes into the preparation and it's how we take care of ourselves and how we go through our processes and stuff like that," Jarrett said. "But I definitely think health is up there. But also, like we talked about earlier, had done a lot of self-scout, seeing where we can get better at and also, you know, the coaches believing in us, the guys that's in the room, knowing that if we just focus more on these things that we can get the job accomplished. So it's up to us as players to go out here and get it done, because obviously the coaches and personnel department believe in us to do a job at a high level and that's what we need to go do."
That's what the Bears are counting on from the current defensive line, since the only additions on the line were on the interior with free agents Neville Gallimore, Kentavius Street and James Lynch and Jordan van den Berg in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett are devoting their attention to the fundamentals and technique, and Jarrett can already see the benefits.
"Yeah, you could feel it from Day 1, Day 1 of this program we started," he said. "We really, really took it to the basics, and I think it's been super helpful. It's helping, helping us. We can see the progress of it on the field already with just two practices and it's just the way we speak to each other, speak through what's expected, the details of whether it's stance or finishing at the ball how we need to. We're breaking it down and we definitely letting the standard know early what's expected."
It's safe to say the coaches and players are expecting better results from the pass rush this season, which is one way to silence the skeptics about the Bears' defense.
"I know that I owe Chicago a better year, and I'm excited to go do that," Jarrett said.
