4 notable difference with Alan Williams as Chicago Bears DC

3. High Zone Rate

The Chicago Bears were primarily a zone coverage team last season. They ran zone about 40% of the time. However, that is nowhere near the amount of zone that they ran on Sunday. The team ran zone on 83% of the 49ers drop backs.

Of course, that is the highest rate in the NFL. They ran man coverage across the board on just 11.4% of the team’s snaps. This is another situation where you may not see them run zone this exclusively, but you should also expect them to remain even more zone heavy than a year before.

Some of the reasons to play zone exclusively against the 49ers was the quarterback they played. When you play man, you turn your back to the quarterback which can make running easier. This is not what they wanted to do.

Beyond that, they likely wanted Trey Lance to decipher the zone and make him constantly think. So, the zone-heavy plan made sense. They will continue to be zone-heavy, but may not be quite as zone-exclusive as they were on Sunday.

Either way, the trend will be followed next week.