Chicago Bears position battles: The three technique

As a result of a 3-14 record and losing their last 10 games, the Chicago Bears had a lot of work to do this offseason. General manager Ryan Poles did a good job of trying to strengthen the roster.

With the infusion of talent to the roster, there are a lot of position battles to look for. In our series analyzing those battles, we looked at the center, running back, cornerback, and strong-side linebacker spots.

Our series looking into Chicago Bears position battles continues as we look at the three technique, where there is a three-way competition.

The Three Technique is the defensive pre-snap positioning where the defensive linemen position themselves on the outside shoulder of the offensive guard.

The position is an important one. He generally has free rein to get upfield and create disruption. The three-tech is tougher to double-team simply by alignment and therefore can make more plays on ball carriers in the running game and get to the quarterback faster on pass plays.

The difficulty for the offensive linemen is that the three-tech usually lines up on the weak side with a defensive end outside of the tackle. That means there won’t be many double-teams on him. The tackle has a man and because of the positioning, the center will take too long to get there.

The Bears had trouble on the defensive line, especially with the three-technique. Many of the players who were there from the previous regime were more of a 3-4 fit so the adjustment to a 4-3 was difficult.

General manager Ryan Poles wanted to change that. He used three picks in this year’s draft on good three-tech players. Two of them, along with a veteran holdover from last season, will battle for the job.

Like with the other positions, Poles added quality talent to fight for a starting spot. Additionally, he has more depth because of the battles.

Here are the three players battling for the three-technique job in 2023.