The Bears have struggled significantly with generating pressure with their four-man rush in 2025. Just about anybody who’s watched them over the course of the season could tell you that.
Heading into Week 17 of the 2025 season, Chicago had generated the second-fewest pressures of any team in the NFL. They’ve paid top dollar for the defensive end tandem of Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo. This offseason, they also shelled out big money to defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and used a second-round pick
on Shemar Turner for the interior.
However, Odeyingbo was a disappearing act before going down for the year to injury. Turner didn’t do much before moving to the edge and quickly suffering a season-ending injury of his own. Jarrett hasn’t done much of note himself, and though Sweat has fared well with 9.5 games with one remaining game, his pass-rush win rate and ability to consistently generate pressure still hasn’t been up to par with his massive salary.
The Bears don’t have a ton of cap space this offseason, but they have the ability to create some with roster cuts, potential trades, and restructuring of contracts. If they create some cap space, odds are strong they’ll look to address their defensive line.
But who are the best free agent edge rushers in the 2026 class?
There are several different ways to measure a player’s value going into free agency, and I decided it would be a good idea to combine them to find one cumulative way to figure out who the most valuable assets will be on the open market by making my own grading scale called the Value Grade.
To create the Value Grade score, I took each of these factors into account in my formula:
- Each player’s age at the time of signing a contract in 2026 free agency
- PFSN’s EDGE Impact scoring
- PFF defensive grading
- Sacks divided by games played in 2025
- Pressures divided by games played in 2025
- Pass-rush win rate (from PFF Premium)
- Run stop percentage (from PFF Premium)
I chose these criteria for specific reasons. For starters, a player’s age usually determines how long-term of a contract they will receive. The PFSN and PFF grading scales are the two analytical scoring models I respect the most. Note that the two are different; a 70.0 on PFF’s scale would rank 44th in the NFL for edge rushers, while a 70.0 on PFSN’s scale would tie for 81st. I’ve accounted for that in my formula. I also felt that efficiency on passing and rushing downs should be valued, with a slight edge to passing after ranking in sacks tallied per game.
Without further ado, these are my edge rusher rankings for the 2026 free agency class, as sorted from best to worse by my own Value Grade system.
As is the case with any form of data measurement, this shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all in terms of figuring out which players are the best. This formula only factors in this year’s production, and it doesn’t account for previous time missed due to injury in previous seasons. If you have any suggestions in the comments on how I can adjust my formula in order to do so, feel free to let me know.
That said, I’m not surprised that Trey Hendrickson comes away as by far the top free agent edge rusher by my Value Grading system. Big names like Khalil Mack and Jaelan Phillips also predictably ranked pretty high, and I find myself much more intrigued by how well-rounded Odafe Oweh has been this season, pairing up with his elite physical attributes.
By these measurements, the Bears should avoid paying top dollar for players like Arnold Ebiketie, Kwity Paye, A.J. Epenesa, and Boye Mafe. Though the allure might be there because they’re on the younger side, they haven’t been efficient this season.
I’ll create a similar formula for defensive tackles and publish my findings in another article at Windy City Gridiron. If there’s enough interest, I may create formulas for every NFL position. For the time being, though, this shows which edge rushers Chicago should pursue the most this offseason.
