The Chicago Bears: Looking at the Defense

The 2009 Bears spent a majority of that season suffering from problems with their third down defense as well as with their passing defense. The promised pass rush that was supposed to be developed by assistant coach Rod Marinelli never really materialized and the secondary, not close to being as effective as they could be without the pass rush, was exposed and teams were able to pass on them at will.

So what did the Bears go out and do to fix this problem? They went out and signed one of the most pricy free agents in history with Julius Peppers. Peppers, formerly of the Carolina Panthers, has been known as one of the best sack artists in the NFL over the past few seasons. Granted, he has taken some plays off from time to time but hopefully with that much money Peppers will play hard every time all the time.

Not only did the Bears go out and get Peppers but they also drafted a safety (Major Wright) that they feel will help end their problems at the position and get them on the right track. Wright had a very good preseason and with some experience, he could end up being the starter and have a pretty good season with the Bears.

Another thing that will help the Bear’s defense is getting all of their linebackers back and healthy. Middle linebacker Brian Urlacher was out for most of the season in 2009 and you could really tell that the Bears missed him. He is back now though and ready to go and already (through two games) he has been a huge help in making the Bears much better on defense.

In addition to Urlacher, the Bears have seen a bit of a resurgence out of Lance Briggs as well. Briggs is playing with a lot more intensity and is making plays in every game. In fact, he has had two big plays in two games this season so far and looks like he’s ready to make more as the season wears on.

We talked about Peppers before but after watching him in a couple games so far this season, we have seen what kind of effect he has on the defense. In the Bear’s game against the Cowboys, we saw Dallas double team Peppers allowing someone else to make plays (Israel Idonije) and this is exactly what we thought would happen with Pepper’s signing. He will only make the rest of the defense better.

The secondary still hasn’t been tested that much yet but from what we have seen out of them so far this season, they haven’t looked that bad. They will be tested and if they can pass those tests then expect them help the defense be one of the best in the NFL this season.

Is there a quality championship defense in Chicago? Possibly. We won’t know for sure until they go through some of the tests that they have coming up with some of the tougher teams in the NFL but if they can make it through some of these tough games this defense could help lead them into the playoffs. Granted, the season is still young and there is a lot more football left to play but already things are looking much better on defense and they could be back to where they were in 2006 once again.