In trading for Darrell Taylor, Bears GM Ryan Poles settles for a more modest gamble
One week after trying to trade for four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Matthew Judon, general manager Ryan Poles made a more modest — and more successful — attempt to bolster the Bears’ pass rush Friday. Poles agreed to send a 2025 sixth-round pick to the Seahawks for edge rusher Darrell Taylor, who has 21 ½ sacks over the previous three seasons.
“He's got sack production, he’s been a really good pass rusher,” coach Matt Eberflus told WSCR-AM. “He fits our scheme in terms of his effort, his style, his disposition. And we’re excited to have him.”
Taylor, who flew to Chicago on Friday to take a physical Friday, signed a one-year, $3.136 million deal in March. Unlike Judon — whom the Bears wanted to acquire for a third-round pick, contingent on their ability to sign him to a contract extension — Taylor doesn’t require a new deal as a condition of the trade.
The Patriots traded Judon to the Falcons for a third-round pick last week. Poles, meanwhile, kept the financial flexibility he so valued for future seasons.
The 6-4, 267-pound Taylor slots onto the roster as a situational pass rusher on obvious throwing downs, when Bears figure to slide end DeMarcus Walker down to tackle. Pro Football Focus graded Taylor No. 122 out of 196 edge rushers in terms of pass rushing last year, 68 spots ahead of former Bear Yannick Ngakoue, who stayed engaged with Poles this offseason while the free agent recovered from season-ending surgery to fix a broken ankle.
Taylor graded out as one of the worst run defenders among edge rushers in the NFL last year. He had the 19th-worst PFF ranking in rund defense, though it was better than both Ngakoue and current Bears defensive end Dominique Robinson.
The Bears figure to play Walker and, if he makes the team, Daniel Hardy on run downs.
Poles has considered defensive end a potential ripe for upgrade since March, when he didn’t land a proven veteran to put opposite Pro Bowl player Montez Sweat. Unprompted, Poles addressed the issue on the day players reported to training camp.
“We will always have our eyes on the list of players that we could potentially bring in,” he said last month.
The Bears traded a 2025 fourth-round pick to the Bills in April to draft Kansas edge rusher Austin Booker in Round 5, with Poles saying at the time that he had “tremendous upside.” The Bears considered him a project, though, after he played just 505 career college snaps, an absurdly low amount, and was only 21 years old.
Booker’s strong training camp — PFF gave him the 27th-best pass rush grade among edge rushers entering Friday — didn’t change the Bears’ need at the position. To expect a rookie to carry that load would have been unfair to both the team and him. Now he'll compete with Taylor for those snaps.
“There will be (challenging) developmental milestones for (Booker),” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said last week. “We understand that. But we’re also anticipating growth.”
Enter Taylor, who was drafted in the second round by the Seahawks out of Tennessee in 2020 but missed his rookie season because of a leg injury suffered in college.
He had 6 ½ sacks in 2021 and 9 ½ the following year, but posted only 5 ½ last season. In 10 of his 17 games in 2023, he played less than half the Seahawks’ snaps. The 27-year-old re-signed in March before becoming a restricted rights free agent and was on the roster bubble during training camp.
Poles is betting that Taylor benefits from the motivation of playing in a walk year — and opposite Sweat, who figures to command double teams throughout the season. The trade wasn't quite the home run swing Poles took a week ago. A solid double, though, would still qualify as an upgrade over what the Bears had.