Chicago Bears NFL Draft: Ronheen Bingham could be excellent EDGE option

The Chicago Bears should be intrigued by this incredibly productive edge rusher out of Arkansas State.

There is no doubt that Ryan Pace, general manager of the Chicago Bears, has a knack for identifying talent from smaller schools.

While his selections of Adam Shaheen, Tarik Cohen, and Bilal Nichols, may have initially been criticized by some, they have largely been home runs, with only Shaheen failing to realize his potential — though that has been primarily injury driven.

Pace will no doubt be in the market for similar players this year, whether it’s through the NFL Draft or as undrafted free agents. In fact, it was recently reported that Pace has visions of potentially adding 18-20 undrafted free agents.

That is an awfully high number of UDFAs, but also a byproduct of only having a total of five picks in the entire Draft.

In a sense, Pace will be using the UDFA avenue as an extension of the Draft to supplement their lack of picks. In that regard, he could refrain from drafting a player late in the hopes that he could sign him later. However, that’s a risky proposition and so if he really likes a player, he may not take that chance.

From that perspective, one player that Pace could end up snagging late is edge rusher from Arkansas State, Ronheen Bingham.

Bingham is incredibly explosive and powerful at the line of scrimmage. While still somewhat raw, he has the physical skill set and intangibles to be an outstanding edge rusher. In fact, he is a darling of Pro Football Focus, who had him with a 30.2 percent win-rate in the NCAAs last year, second only to Nick Bosa who had a 31.4 percent win-rate.

Win-rate is defined as the number of times the defender gets a pressure on the quarterback or beats his man. That’s an astounding rate and also shows just how productive he was in college.

Many people will cite the lack of competition Bingham faced while at Arkansas State as a reason those numbers might be inflated or why he’s not worthy of a pick in the Draft.

If you’re one of those people making that argument, then you likely did not watch the film of his game against the University of Alabama in which he embarrassed Jonah Williams with a spin move that left Williams looking lost. Check out the video here courtesy of Steelersdepot.com. Williams is a consensus top-20 pick, with some outlets having him go in the top-10, and Bingham put him in the spin cycle.

Bingham has a relentless motor, is quick, explosive, and strong at the point of attack. He’s also demonstrated he can succeed against the highest levels of competition. What’s even better is that he likely hasn’t realized his full potential yet, something Chuck Pagano would surely help him do.

All in all, he seems like a tremendous fit with the Chicago Bears, with whom he has already met. While Pace may decide to wait and try to sign him after the Draft, that would be unwise. Bingham could be an absolute steal, and his potential is simply too good to pass up.