Bears Give Permission for Veteran DE to Seek Trade: Report

Getty Bears general manager Ryan Poles

The Chicago Bears are allowing one of their veteran pass rushers on the roster bubble to pursue a trade before next week’s league-wide 53-man cut deadline.

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Bears have given permission to fourth-year defensive end Trevis Gipson to seek a trade after the 2020 fifth-round pick has slid down the team’s depth chart at the position over the past month of training camp.

Gipson was listed at the bottom of the Bears’ first unofficial depth chart ahead of their first preseason game in early August and had received a healthy share of snaps at the position alongside Terrell Lewis over the team’s first two exhibition games. While the 26-year-old was generally disruptive in those two appearances, though, his trade request suggests that Lewis has been winning their battle for a roster spot.

Fowler noted that Gipson could be looking for a trade fit with a team that runs a 3-4 defensive scheme and would allow him to return to the outside linebacker position. He showed a good amount of promise in that role for the Bears in 2021, but his sack production dropped off significantly — from seven sacks to three — when Chicago switched to a 4-3 base defense under head coach Matt Eberflus in 2022.

With Gipson now looking to leave Chicago, the Bears’ defensive end position is most likely settled for the 53-man roster. Yannick Ngakoue and DeMarcus Walker are their projected starting pass rushers for Week 1’s opener against the Green Bay Packers — assuming Walker is healthy by then — while Rasheem Green, Dominique Robinson and Lewis will serve as the backups and situational pieces behind them in the rotation.

Trevis Gipson Helps Boost Trade Value Against Bills

Gipson might be coming off a down season for the Bears in 2022, but he is certainly doing his part to raise his trade value with a strong finish to the 2023 preseason.

Over Chicago’s first two preseason games, Gipson notched eight total tackles, three quarterback hits and a sack across 65 defensive snaps and received near-elite marks from Pro Football Focus (85.8) as a pass rusher. Then, less than 30 minutes after news broke that he had been granted his trade request, he added another strip-sack to his preseason resume in the second quarter against Buffalo back quarterback Kyle Allen.

Even if Gipson adds nothing further to his box score, the Bears have to feel good about how his strong preseason might inflate his trade value. His previous success in a 3-4 system might have been enticing enough for the Bears to get a late Day 3 pick from a team that needs additional pass-rushing depth, but a more recent demonstration of explosiveness off the edge could potentially drive up the return to a mid-Day 3 pick.

Frankly, the Bears should be happy with whatever return they can get for Gipson considering the alternative would have most likely been cutting him for nothing.

Bears Can Address DE in 2024 if Bets Don’t Pan Out

The Bears should have an improved group of edge rushers for the 2023 season despite Gipson — one of last year’s starters — requesting to be traded to another team. They added a pair of quality run defenders in Walker and Green back in March and then secured a pure pass rusher in Ngakoue toward the beginning of training camp. They are also looking to see if Robinson can make a second-year jump in the rotation.

That said, it seems extremely likely that the Bears will be going back to the well for more defensive end talent when the 2024 offseason rolls around next spring.

The Bears did not draft a single defensive end in the 2023 draft, instead investing three of their draft picks — including two Day 2 selections — into interior defensive linemen. Both Will Anderson Jr. and Tyree Wilson were gone by the time they were on the clock, and they elected to move down to No. 10 for right tackle Darnell Wright rather than take a chance on another pass rusher, such as Will McDonald IV or Lukas Van Ness.

In 2024, though, the Bears will have two first-round draft choices to give themselves more flexibility to pursue the right pass rusher for their defense. Things could look different when the 2023 college football season ends, but as of late August, Florida State’s Jared Verse, Alabama’s Dallas Turner, Ohio State’s JT Tuimoloau and Washington’s Bralen Trice all look like they could be early-to-mid first-rounders.