Devin Bush and Bears are truly a match made in Chicago Heaven

The Chicago Bears were very active during free agency and made several strong moves. However, one move stands out as the best that they had made. The team bringing in Devin Bush may be remembered as the best.

Gordon McGuinness of Pro Football Focus went through every move in free agency and rated the seven best deals that he saw. Bush to the Bears made the cut.

"The Bears immediately replace Tremaine Edmunds, whom they recently released, with Bush, who revived his career in Cleveland to the tune of back-to-back 79.0-plus PFF overall grades. Bush, PFF's ninth-ranked free agent, surrendered just a 69.3 passer rating in coverage this past season, the second-best mark among linebackers. He keeps the Bears' defense in great shape at a reasonable price point."
Gordon McGuinness

Bears' signing of Devin Bush in free agency was graded well

It helps that PFF projected Bush to get $36 million over three years, and the Bears actually got him for $30 million. The deal is already looking good because it is below what they expected Bush to make. More than that, there is a lot of upside with Bush.

Bush was not only a top ten pick in the 2019 NFL draft, but the Pittsburgh Steelers also traded up to get him. He was viewed as that talented. He tore his ACL with Pittsburgh and never quite found his footing. He went to Seattle from there, but it was Cleveland where he really figured things out.

He entered the NFL Draft at a very young age, so age is not a problem. If they get the player that Cleveland got last year and Pittsburgh thought that they were getting in the draft, this is going to be a great value signing.

Dennis Allen clearly has a specific plan for how he wants to use his linebackers, and he sees Bush as a good fit for his scheme. Tremaine Edmunds made more in free agency after being cut, and is arguably not as good a fit with Allen. So, the team was able to save money, upgrade, and at the same time, take a big swing on a player with legitimate potential.

The move could be viewed similarly to the one involving Demario Davis back in 2018. Davis flashed but never found the right home. Dennis Allen and the New Orleans Saints signed him, and he became an all-time linebacker in that defense. It looks like Allen thinks Bush can do many of the things Davis once did, and that Bush is flying under the radar in the same way.