The Chicago Bears started off their day two picks by selecting Gervon Dexter, the defensive lineman from Florida. Dexter was one of the top players we highlighted as a great fit here. We knew that the team was debating Jalen Carter at number nine, and they have been looking for that interior rusher since Larry Ogunjobi, so they finally solved that in the 2023 NFL draft.
So, what does Gervon Dexter bring to the Chicago Bears, and how does he help the team now, and possibly into the future?
3. Gervon Dexter is still new to football
Gervon Dexter was a highly recruited basketball prospect as a young high school student and did not even play football organizationally until his junior season of high school. Despite that, he was highly recruited in football as well and went into the SEC with Florida.
Dexter did not play much in 2020 but started all of 2021 and 2022. He finished with 24 starts over three years, and that comes with 4.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss. Overall he finished his career with 1,417 snaps played with 728 snaps in run defense, and 688 getting after the passer.
Overall, he also has 205 snaps in the A-Gap as a 1-technique, 959 snaps in the B-gap as a 3-tech, and even 227 snaps out as a 5-technique, and 20 snaps even further outside. In 2021, he played 157 snaps in the AGap, splitting his reps about halfway. However, in 2022, the Florida Gators pushed him to the B-Gap and he had 515 snaps in the 3-technique role with just 46 in the A-gap.
That change obviously helped his draft stock, and is probably what attracted him to the Chicago Bears. They saw a player who is new to football in general, did not play much in 2020, and played out of place in 2021. So, 2022 was the first year you actually saw him do things that would translate to the NFL. That is a lot of upside to be untapped.
Gervon Dexter is only 21 years old. He also went to Halas Hall before the draft, probably so that the team could make sure that he bought into the work ethic it may take to tap his potential. The Bears are bought in, and if Dexter is too, we probably just saw the best of him.
2. Chicago Bears front office may know his old coaching staff
When you look at Gervon Dexter and his body, and frame it is hard not to see Chris Jones. They are both tall and long, and while they obviously have mass, they wear it well and are lean. Beyond that, you can see that have similar athletic abilities as well.
Florida Gators DT Gervon Dexter has said he’s often been compared to Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones. NFL Network made the comparison too during the Combine
— Brandon Olsen (@WNS_Brandon) March 31, 2023
Here’s how they stack up pic.twitter.com/EO2HvyABec
This stands out for a specific reason. Chris Jones went to Mississippi State and the head coach at the time was Dan Mullen. Gervon Dexter then was recruited to Florida by who else, but Dan Mullen? Mullen saw the comparison as well and was working him up to be his next player in the Chris Jones role.
Todd Grantham the Florida defensive coordinator was with Mullen and Chris Jones as well as defensive line coach David Turner, so the fit makes a lot of sense. Jones fell to round two with a lot of the same questions about how raw he was, and Jones also played a lot of nose tackle, in the same role that Dexter played in 2021.
What makes this even more interesting is that Ryan Poles was with the Kansas City Chiefs when they drafted Chris Jones. So, he talked to Mullen, Grantham and he saw what Chris Jones did and said to win over the Chiefs. The reality is that the same thing probably happened with Poles and Gervon Dexter. The relationship with the coaching staff is obviously there, and the athletic comparison is there as well.
The Kansas City Chiefs stole a three-technique who was raw and athletic a few years back. Did the Chicago Bears just do the same thing?
1. Gervon Dexter production dropped him to Chicago Bears
There are not many players with the athletic upside of Gervon Dexter at the 53rd pick in the 2023 NFL draft, and the reason is that Dexter does not have much production. He had less than three sacks, and less than five tackles for loss in the last two seasons.
During his career, he had an 18% win rate, and a 9 rating in pass rush production, per PFF. For comparison, Jalen Carter was at 24% and had an 11.8. In run defense, Dexter was a little better. He had a 7.7% stop rate last year, which is down a bit from 8.6% the year before. Both are above average. However, again, when you compare it to Carter at 15.3% you see why one of them went in the top ten, and the other fell to 50.
Ryan Poles was asked about his statistical production and talked about why scouting your own stats can be valuable. He talked about taking on blocks for other defenders to get free, or pushing pockets, or even just wins should be charted and tracked. That is fair, but for now Dexter is more about a projection, and what he can be than what he is right now.
Time will tell if the Chicago Bears made the right move by going defensive line in round two rather than round one, but the production questions associated with Dexter are what you get when you do wait.