Bears' T.J. Edwards details going from high school QB to NFL linebacker

Chicago Bears linebacker and team captain T.J. Edwards has been in the league since 2019, when he went undrafted and was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent as a linebacker out of the University of Wisconsin.

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Edwards attended Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa, Ill., but he didn't grow up playing linebacker.

During a guest appearance on "The Eighty Five with Cole Kmet" podcast, Edwards was asked about growing up in the Chicago area and the beginning of his football journey and he revealed that he was not a linebacker growing up, instead, he was the quarterback for his high school.

Reminiscing of their high school days when their respective schools faced one another, Edwards detailed how he got started as a quarterback, playing against Kmet's St. Viator program, and how he eventually became one of the best tackling linebackers in the NFL

"I played quarterback my whole high school career," Edwards said, "I played three or four games at safety my senior year [of high school] just to kind of see, and I didn't get a single [collegiate] offer for quarterback so I'm assuming, I was good, but not great, it kind of just ended up working out that way. I really only had one school, Toledo, that offered me an offensive side of the ball and it was a slot receiver. I was like, I don't really know if that's my skill set."

Edwards would eventually land at Wisconsin, where he would thrive as a linebacker, despite not being drafted in 2019. He would add that he believed his time at quarterback in high school helped him transition to being in the middle on defense as a linebacker.

"I ended up going to Wisconsin, from day one I was an inside linebacker, it was kind of a wild transition at first, but I think football is football," he said. "When you're playing quarterback you kind of understand the game a little bit more, especially in high school, and it was easy for me to kind of translate that to being in the middle on defense. I redshirted that first year, got to understand my game in that way and then took off from there."

Since entering the league in 2019, Edwards has totaled 591 total tackles (and counting), including 155 total tackles in his first year with the Bears last year, and 47 through the first six games of the 2024 season. In 2023, Edwards signed a three-year, $19.5 million deal to come home to Chicago and being a crucial part of their defense as a leading linebacker. He was also named a captain for the first time in his career in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears' T.J. Edwards details going from high school QB to NFL LB