In the last 16 months, we have seen some serious turnover on the defensive side of the football. Several of Matt Eberflus’ guys are already out the door, and Dennis Allen has spent the last two offseasons building a defense in his vision.
The Bears have added a couple new names to the defensive line since Allen took over, but there’s still a handful that remain from Eberflus as well. Those names are Montez Sweat, Austin Booker, and Gervon Dexter.
Advertisement
Dexter is the name we are going to focus on in this article (although you’ll be reading about Sweat and Booker in later articles in the series), and I think Dexter is an interesting player to discuss because he’s another player where I think his future is up in the air.
Gervon Dexter: Stash
After his rookie season, Dexter certainly was showing promise, and he built upon that in season two. Dexter still had some success in season three, but some of the weaknesses in his game hadn’t improved as many had hoped. Dexter now enters year four, and we most likely know what type of player Dexter has become.
Yes, there’s a chance that Dexter can still break out from where he was and elevate his game and become a player closer to a game-wrecker that teams love to have penetrating from the interior defensive line, but what we are most likely looking at is a defensive tackle who is a good pass rusher and a below-average run defender, making him an above-average defensive tackle.
Advertisement
Having someone of Dexter’s skills starting on your defensive line is fine for a team that is looking to play solid football around .500, but is Dexter capable of being a starting defensive tackle for a team contending for a Super Bowl? My answer to that is no.
I do think, however, that if Dexter was a team’s third defensive tackle and part of a rotation, that would be a strong enough defensive line to contend for a Super Bowl, as long as the players in front of him were stronger, more skilled players.
I don’t think Dexter is a perfect fit for Dennis Allen’s defense, but he is a good fit, especially being that he can get interior pressure from time to time, something Allen does like out of his tackles.
Dexter is going to become a free agent in 2027, and I would say that the sensible move would be to let Dexter walk after this year and let someone else pay him the contract dollars he’s most likely seeking.
Advertisement
However, the Bears are in a unique spot. Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo are almost certainly not going to be here next year. Montez Sweat is also going to be a free agent after the 2027 season as well. The Bears don’t have a lot of certainty in the long term on the defensive line, so it might make it more likely, because of that, that Dexter sees a second contract.
It’s quite possible that if the Bears had more stability in the defensive line room, they may not consider keeping Dexter as much. But let’s look at this: going into 2027, if the Bears want to keep 10 DL, they’ll have Sweat and Austin Booker with Daniel Hardy; they’ll have Neville Gallimore, Shemar Turner, and Jordan van den Berg. That means they need to find 4 more DL for the 2027 season, and that’s if every one of the above names returns. The Bears need to find a starting-caliber edge (unless Booker breaks out) and two starting-caliber DTs, and they will need to use one or two day one or day two draft picks on defensive linemen as well.
With that kind of turnover, if Dexter is willing to take a shorter contract, even if he doesn’t improve from the last couple of seasons, he may be worth bringing back to stabilize the DL a little bit.
However they want to handle Dexter, it’s going to come down to how he plays this year. If Dexter plays as he has or regresses a little, he’s going to be firmly on the bubble as to whether or not the Bears want to bring him back for 2027. But if he improves, it might be worth trying to find some common ground if the contract is affordable and bringing Dexter back. But under no circumstances is this a player that should be offered a contract extension before the 2026 season.
The Bears should let Dexter play out this season and see where the chips fall.
Read the full article here
