Whoa! Slow down, Rob. We all want to know what you are smoking these days now that things are legal here in the great state of Illinois. How in the world is this team going to finish with a top-10 defensive unit when they have a completely new coaching staff and traded away future Hall of Fame defensive end, Khalil Mack?
Before we get into the reasons why let’s look at the current roster of the Chicago Bears. As of right now, the team still has Robert Quinn to rush the quarterback. Quinn is coming off a “sacktastic” season, setting the Bears franchise sack record. Eddie Jackson is not as bad as many fans like to believe. His missed tackle rate has been better the last three years than in 2018. In fact, he’s improved every year from 2018 to last year when his missed tackle rate was under 10%.
The Chicago Bears defense will have no problem being a top-10 unit in 2022
The team also has Roquan Smith manning the linebacker group (pending these allegations I won’t speculate on) and Jaylon Johnson locking down the CB1 role. The additions of rookies Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon will only help matters. This defense is going to be slept on and it shouldn’t be. The team also brought in some key free agents who fit Eberflus’ scheme — some who have even played in his system. They lost a few guys like Mack and Akiem Hicks, but neither of those two played a full season combined last year. Plus the team has more moves it can make.
Now, we are going to take a look at two key areas that I believe point us in the direction of what we can expect to see out of the defense in 2022 — even if the offense hardly improves.