The Chicago Bears made their mission crystal clear in the first two days of the 2023 draft. GM Ryan Poles was determined to improve in the trenches. He wanted to get bigger, tougher, and longer. He seemed to achieve this goal. Darnell Wright should solve the team’s issues at right tackle on offense. Then two defensive tackles arrived in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Both were met with raised eyebrows and confusion. Some experts feel both should’ve gone later. Not Poles. Then when you hear one of those players get compared to future Hall of Famer Chris Jones, you start to understand why.
When it comes to tape analysis, there are few better in the business than Greg Cosell. He’s widely respected for his thorough and unbiased evaluations. That is why it’s eye-opening to hear him drop lofty comparisons. Yet when the time came to talk about Florida defensive tackle Gervon Dexter on The Journey To The Draft podcast, he couldn’t help himself.
“I got to tell you. His really good snaps, and there are a lot of them, he reminded me of Chris Jones. But there were other snaps where I thought that he was late off the snap, sluggish and lethargic getting out of his stance, which of course affected his explosiveness and burst. There were times where I thought he came off the ball high, but again another guy…a guy whose really good snaps, I thought, ‘Wow, this guy is really, really good.’ If you put together his 15 best snaps, you’d probably think this guy’s a top 10 pick. But he didn’t play that way all the time. Another guy I’m really curious about but, like I said, his really good snaps? He made me think of Chris Jones.”
It sounds too good to be true.
Then you remember who the GM is. Poles was a top member of the Kansas City Chiefs front office that drafted Jones in 2016. If anybody knows what to look for, it would be him.
Chris Jones had a similar college career to Dexter too.
While he showed plenty of flashes as a pass rusher, he only had 2.5 sacks in his final year at Mississippi State. Most considered him a run defender when he came out of college. Maybe he’d develop into a QB hunter if he ever embraced a better motor and pad level. Those are the same comments being made about Dexter. The two are virtually identical in size. Jones is slightly longer, but Dexter has more lower body explosion. This doesn’t mean the Bears’ new 2nd round pick will be a future star, but it’s a clear sign the potential is there.
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If he can get anywhere close to Chris Jones’ level, the Bears’ defense is about to be a problem again. Matt Eberflus’ scheme is designed to exploit his best physical traits. It comes down to whether Dexter is willing to put in the work to get better. This coaching staff won’t go easy on him. They’re committed to demanding a lot from their players. Dexter seems up for the challenge. His tools are electric. It is all about finding consistency from snap to snap.
