Bears are hoping Tryon-Shoyinka and Booker can help the team’s defensive line situation

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles believes he did the best he could to improve the team’s pass rush without throwing away its future.

Chicago acquired defensive lineman Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in a trade with Cleveland at the deadline on Tuesday. Tryon-Shoyinka, a former first-round pick by Tampa Bay, should help make up for the loss of defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo to a season-ending Achilles tendon injury.

“All I can say is we made calls across the league and I check up on all of the guys you would imagine just to see the availability,” Poles said Wednesday.

Bears coach Ben Johnson said the team was “kind of low in numbers there in that D-line room.”

“So adding Joe into the equation should hopefully give us a little boost here for the second half,” he said.

The Bears (5-3) also upgraded their defensive line when Austin Booker had an impressive season debut in Sunday’s 47-42 victory at Cincinnati. Booker, who missed the first seven games because of a knee injury, had a strip sack against Joe Flacco when he bull-rushed his blocker.

“We turned pretty much every stone to find those answers and then, yeah, the timing worked out where we got the extra week to see (Booker) get going again,” Poles said, “and I think it reminded us back to the momentum he had going in the preseason. You saw those flashes and we expect those to continue to come.”

The injury-riddled Bears defense struggled against the Bengals, but they were picked up by Caleb Williams and the rest of the team’s offense.

Johnson, who was hired in January, said he thinks Williams is getting better every week in the quarterback’s second NFL season.

“There’s ups and there’s downs,” Johnson said. “And some weeks are better than others, which we knew. But he’s in a lot better place now with his process than he was to start the season.

“The week isn’t necessarily smooth sailing always but I think that’s to be expected with Year 1 in a new system.”

Williams, who turns 24 on Nov. 18, has been working on his accuracy. He is completing 61.5% of his throws, a full percentage point below his rookie year, and the placement of his passes is often off on completions.

“It’s runners’ ball, give your guys the best shot because we’ve got some guys on this team that can take a 5-yard route, a 15-yard route or something like a go-ball, for a touchdown and break tackles, whatever they have to do to create explosive plays for us, big plays for us, keep us ahead of the sticks,” Williams said.

Williams did make a clutch throw to Colston Loveland on Sunday that the rookie tight end turned into a 58-yard play for the game-winning touchdown.

“I think a lot of the misses per se that I’ve had through the early part of the season would be just building this trust and rapport with these guys,” Williams said. “And it’s us being on the same page, exactly where you’re going to sit, and the body language and all these different things. So that’s a part of playing QB back there and building this trust and rapport with these guys.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL