With new defensive coordinator Sean Desai, the Bears’ style is almost certain to resemble the incredible defense they played under his boss, Vic Fangio, three seasons ago.
But it won’t be an exact replica. The fact that Desai was trained by Fangio was part of what led coach Matt Nagy to promote him, but surely there were offshoots and variations that popped into Desai’s mind during their four seasons together. There will be a heavy Fangio influence, but the system is Desai’s design.
“Vic’s been tremendous for me,” said Desai, who also credited former University of Miami coach Al Golden and others for teaching him. “The philosophies we’re trying to build here as a defense, there’s roots of everybody I’ve worked with.
“Everybody’s voice is a little bit in there, and I think that’s the benefit of it. That’s why I’m my own person [from Fangio]. We’re going to try to do this thing the way these players want to do it and the way these coaches want to do it.”
He echoed Nagy’s call to leave the past in the past. The Bears don’t want to obsess over trying to recapture their 2018 magic, nor do they want to accept the stagnation of the last two seasons as their reality going forward.
That being said, Desai elicits memories of Fangio. While he wants to establish his own brand, six months ago he referred to Fangio as “one of the smartest football minds I’ve ever been around” and said he was “really fortunate” to have studied under him.
“He’ll say something and it will sound just like Vic,” general manager Ryan Pace said this week. “That’s a really good thing.”
Fangio set the standard in 2018, when the Bears’ defense carried them to an NFC North title at 12-4, before taking the head job in Denver.
The Bears were a terrifying takeaway machine. No one could throw on them, no one could run on them and no one could score on them. Safety Eddie Jackson was an all-pro, and outside linebacker Khalil Mack looked like he was worth every penny of his $141 million contract.
Nagy’s demand of Desai is that he restore it. All of it.
The core personnel is intact, led by Mack, and even with its modest decline over the last two seasons, the Bears’ defense is still good. Nagy won six games in which his offense scored 20 points or fewer. It just isn’t what it used to be.
In 2018, Fangio’s last season, this defense was so overpowering that it made people believe the Bears’ offense was decent. Defensive touchdowns and takeaways that set up the offense in field-goal range boosted the team from 22.4 to 26.3 points per game.
The current offense could use a similar boost.
For Desai, just as it was for Fangio, the pass rush is paramount. The 2018 Bears were third in sacks and second in quarterback pressures, and they did it without much blitzing. They were 17th and 23rd, respectively, last season. That led to them allowing a 94.9 opponent passer rating, third-worst in franchise history, and 25th in takeaways.
Their engulfing pass rush in 2018 led to 36 takeaways, a number matched by just three teams in the past decade.
Management left Desai quite a puzzle to solve when it comes to fixing that pass rush, and by extension the defense at large. Outside linebacker Robert Quinn is on a $70 million contract and delivered just two sacks while playing 51% of the snaps (for context, Mack played 83%, and Quinn was at 75% or higher in his prime). And there are injury concerns. And he’d rather be playing defensive end.
“I’ve got an open-door policy, and the players know that,” Desai said. “I jokingly tell them there’s a suggestion box right outside my door. Doesn’t mean every suggestion is going to be taken, but every suggestion will be under consideration.”
Solving the Quinn issue would help clear the way for Mack to reestablish himself as one of the most dominant pass rushers in the NFL. He ranks a respectable 13th in the league with 17.5 sacks over the last two seasons, but the Bears are paying for much more than respectable.
They committed nearly 22% of their salary cap to Mack, Quinn and Hicks and cut costs elsewhere — cornerback, for one — to afford them. They’re counting on Desai to make that pay off in a way that former defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano couldn’t.
Pagano had four decades in football, including 11 as a coordinator or head coach between college and the pros. Desai is a first-timer at 38. It’s a monumental task, and virtually the entire staff’s jobs are on the line. But if Desai has the right combination of new ideas and Fangio hand-me-downs, the pieces are there to make this defense fearsome again.
