The Bears brought Grady Jarrett in to be more than a body on the defensive front. Chicago wanted a veteran who could collapse pockets, bother quarterbacks, and help steady a defense that needed real help.
Seven games into the 2026 season, the Bears are 5-2 and the defense has taken a clear step forward. But Jarrett’s individual production still hasn’t matched the kind of impact Chicago was chasing.
Through ESPN’s Bears team statistics, Jarrett has 12 tackles and no sacks. For a player signed with the expectation that he would be a disruptive force, that line falls short of the mark.
That said, the picture isn’t as simple as the sack column suggests.
Interior linemen do plenty of work that never shows up in the flashiest numbers. They eat blocks, squeeze running lanes, and create openings for teammates to cash in.
Jarrett has done some of that. Pro Football Focus credited him with nine quarterback pressures through his first five games, along with seven hurries and two quarterback hits.
His 72.1 pass rush grade ranked 18th among qualifying interior defensive linemen at that point.
So he hasn’t been invisible. He just hasn’t been the kind of game-wrecker Chicago had in mind.
That becomes even more noticeable when you look around the rest of the front. Austin Booker has four sacks.
Dayo Odeyingbo has three. Kyler Gordon, a cornerback, has four.
Jarrett is still searching for his first.
His 2025 season was interrupted by injuries, and he missed three games. This year has been different.
The availability has been there. Now the Bears need the pressures to start turning into more damaging plays.
Jeffery Simmons’ arrival only sharpens that pressure.
Ryan Poles gave up two future first-round picks to land Simmons because Chicago wanted another difference maker on the defensive line. That move came after Simmons posted 11 sacks in 2025 and earned first-team All-Pro honors. He also had four sacks through seven games this season before Tennessee traded him.
That’s the kind of interior force the Bears have been missing. And in theory, Simmons should make life easier for Jarrett.
Opposing lines can’t overload one tackle when the other one is capable of wrecking a game on his own. Jarrett should get cleaner chances to win one-on-one battles now that Simmons is in the mix.
But the trade also says something about where Chicago stood before it happened.
If the Bears felt the need to spend that much draft capital to upgrade the middle of the defense, it naturally raises the question of what they were getting from the players already there.
Jarrett isn’t the only reason for anything that has gone wrong on defense. He’s not carrying that burden alone.
Still, he’s one of the veterans who has to answer now.
Chicago’s defense has climbed into the top 10 in scoring defense, allowing 20.4 points per game. The Bears also have 19 sacks through seven games, which puts them among the league’s better pass-rushing teams.
So this isn’t a unit in crisis. It’s a defense on the rise, with a chance to become even more dangerous.
That’s where Jarrett matters most. The Bears don’t need him to suddenly become the most dominant defensive tackle in football. Simmons can handle the superstar billing.
But Jarrett can’t fade into the background, either. Chicago has put too much into this defensive front to settle for sporadic pressure and modest production from one of its established veterans.
He has spent more than a decade showing he can play at a high level. Nobody is questioning that experience or what he has already done.
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