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A few years ago, Chicago’s defense was considered the best in football. The unit ended 2018 first in allowed points and third in allowed yards, while producing 36 turnovers, as many as possible.
They were so good that ex-coordinator Vic Fangio got a new job as a Broncos coach in 2019.
While Chicago made the postseason in 2020 as the new No. 7 seed for the NFC, the Bears’ defense fell under coordinator Chuck Pagano. The club finished 14th in allowed points, 11th in allowed yards and forced only 18 takeaways – ranking in the bottom third of the league.
Pagano has since retired, with former Bears coach Sean Desai being promoted to the post. During a video conference on Monday, Desai noted that Fangio has been his biggest influence as a coach, especially as he sat next to Fangio in the training booth during the games.
But more than that, Desai feels that the Chicago defense is not far from returning to its last days of glory.
“I’m not a big car guy, so my analogies may not be good, but that’s how a tuning,”Desai said. “We are going to refine a few things and make sure that our players are playing with their strengths consistently. And they will buy in the system, and they why and how we are doing certain things.
“But we have a good defense. We have very good players here. … I’m with you all in terms of statistics – someone asked before, [about how] there was some regression – and we’re going to get over it. But we will do it in a positive way and we will do it where the players will be able to shine through this defense. I think we will build some depth and continue with our mentality of difficult and physical play and we will do that over a 16 to 20 week season. “
The Bears have one of the best defensive building blocks in football, with Khalil Mack on his side, and he should be a catalyst for improvement. In addition, Desai has the advantage of already meeting the people of Chicago, since he has been with the club since 2013.
And that’s also a good thing, because realistically the Bears have to put their highest priority this offseason on finding their quarterback to become a more consistent offensive team in 2021.