Windy City Gridiron
Each day in the month of June, we’ll roll out a fresh topic to get Chicago Bears fans thinking. Be sure to chime in with your answer in the comments so we can all get to know our WCG members a bit better.
This might be one of my favorite topics from the 30-Day Challenge because it opens the door to so much debate and speculation.
The possibilities are nearly endless. Walter Payton running behind Ben Johnson’s offensive line and operating within his offensive system? Mike Ditka giving Johnson a fourth tight end to create even more matchup nightmares? Maybe one of the many Hall of Fame middle linebackers the Bears have fielded over the years: Brian Urlacher, Mike Singletary, Dick Butkus, or even Bill George, the man who helped define the middle linebacker position. Why not the Kansas Comet, Gale Sayers, who would bring not only another home-run threat to the offense, but a game-changing weapon on special teams as well?
You could spend hours going through all the possibilities. But for me, I wanted to approach this as pragmatically as possible.
And Richard Dent would be the perfect answer to lead this one.
While I was a little too young to fully appreciate Dent during his peak years with the Bears, he was nonetheless a cornerstone of Chicago’s defense for 12 seasons. And much like KFC’s colonel is known for doing one thing exceptionally well—chicken—Dent’s specialty was hunting quarterbacks.
Dent was known for his explosive first step, often being cited as having one of the quickest get-offs of any pass rusher in his era. He played with a relentless motor and never stopped pursuing the quarterback. In many ways, he was one of the early masters of the strip sack, routinely coming off the blindside and swatting the ball free before quarterbacks even knew he was there.
During his 12 seasons with the Bears, Dent recorded 124.5 sacks, along with 8 interceptions, 37 forced fumbles, and 13 fumble recoveries. Eight of those twelve seasons saw him reach double-digit sacks, including a league-leading 17 sacks during the Bears’ legendary 1985 campaign.
Dent also held the Bears’ franchise record with 17.5 sacks in a season until Robert Quinn broke it in 2021 with 18.5. (Quinn would infamously record just one more sack for the remainder of his career after that record-setting season. Despite spending parts of three seasons in Chicago, he managed only three sacks outside of his remarkable 2021 campaign. It remains one of the stranger stretches of production Bears fans have ever witnessed.)
The four-time Pro Bowler, First-Team All-Pro, and Super Bowl XX MVP would provide a massive and immediate boost to the Bears’ biggest weakness: the pass rush. His addition wouldn’t just improve the defensive line, it would elevate everyone around him. A dominant edge rusher forces offenses to adjust protections, creates more one-on-one opportunities for other pass rushers, and shortens the amount of time opposing...
