Mark Anderson looks like Bears' best edge rusher since a certain Super Bowl star
By John Mullin
Tribune staff reporter
October 13, 2006, 12:34 AM CDT
Halfway through the second quarter of the Bears-Bills game Sunday, Richard Dent saw something he had waited years to see.
Rookie defensive end Mark Anderson accelerated out of his stance on an apparent path to the outside of Bills left tackle Mike Gandy. Suddenly, Anderson feinted to Gandy's inside. The former Bears lineman reacted back to his right to protect the inside and stopped moving his feet for an instant. At that moment, he was beaten.
In a blink, Anderson reverted to his outside rush, brushed past the struggling Gandy and closed on Bills quarterback J.P. Losman for the sack.
"I've been waiting for someone to do that for 20 years," said Dent, MVP of Super Bowl XX, the Bears' all-time sack leader and one of the game's foremost devotees of the craft.
The Bears have been waiting for someone like Anderson since Dent's prime, trying to find that pure edge rusher who presents a destructive threat play after play. Such players possess rare traits and intangibles so difficult to project that innumerable teams have squandered high draft picks chasing the elusive talent who can succeed on his sole mission of hunting quarterbacks.
The Bears have elite-level defensive ends in Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye. Not since Bill Tobin identified Dent as the best pure pass rusher in the 1983 draft—and waited until the eighth round to pick him—have the Bears struck what they appear to have in Anderson, who is tied for third in the league with 5½ sacks.
Since 2000, the Bears have sought their Anderson almost every year: Karon Riley in 2001, Brown in 2002, Claude Harriott in 2004 and Shurron Pierson, from Oakland, in 2004. Only Brown worked out, putting on bulk to play in ex-coach Dick Jauron's defensive scheme and ultimately developing into an all-around end.
The Bears had Rosevelt Colvin and Bryan Cox, but both were starting linebackers who turned into nickel rushers on passing downs. They spent the 11th pick of the 1994 draft on John Thierry, the hoped-for successor to Dent, who left the team after his 1993 Pro Bowl year.
"There have only been a few guys who can rush the passer with speed alone," general manager Jerry Angelo said. "Guys like Dwight Freeney (Indianapolis), John Abraham (Atlanta), Derrick Thomas (Kansas City). They have rare speed.
"A lot of guys have production in college, but what kills them in the pros are two things: They don't really have the hand usage and they don't have the instincts, knowing when to pull the trigger on a move. They need a degree of strength and other things, but those two are key, and you can't really tell if a guy has those until he's at the NFL level. That's why there are so many busts at that position."
Angelo was with Tampa Bay when the Bucs spent the sixth pick of the 1993 draft on Eric Curry. Bust. The Bucs drafted Regan Upshaw 12th in 1996 and never got more than 7½ sacks for the investment.
"I learned from my mistakes," Angelo said, laughing.
The Bears were surprised to find Anderson still on the board when their turn came in the fifth round this year. Perceptions were that he lacked toughness
But the Bears saw a 42-inch vertical jump and 4.62-second speed for 40 yards from a 255-pounder out of Alabama who was impressive at the Senior Bowl and grabbed him. One of the first things Anderson did, however, was injure a hamstring early in training camp and miss all but the last exhibition game.
But he had impressed enough to secure a roster spot and has emerged as one of the league's top sack threats. That has required some learning.
"In college I was watching the player in front of me, the ball, the quarterback, a lot of things," Anderson said. "I really didn't key the ball too much, just tried to key on any movement along the line. Now it's 'ball, ball.'
"I'm still working on that. … The great pass rushers have all got it."
Anderson beat Seahawks All-Pro left tackle Walter Jones for one sack and collected another when Tommie Harris flushed Matt Hasselbeck toward him. He has had at least a partial sack in four of the Bears' five games. He is mastering the hand techniques to keep blockers from tying him up, and he has shown the instincts that are so difficult to scout.
"You can have all the speed in the world, but it takes that something else in the process," Dent said. "I see some of that in Anderson."
jmullin@tribune.com
Bears rookie making a dent
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