5 reasons to trust Alan Williams to turn Chicago Bears defense around

The Chicago Bears’ defense is awful, and no one can deny it. However, when you divvy up the blame there is a question to be answered about whether the players or coordinator are the biggest cause.

Almost anyone can see that the personnel is not where the team wants it to be, but is that giving defensive coordinator Alan Williams a free pass? Here are five reasons why trusting Alan Williams appears to be the right decision.

5. Alan Williams has mixed blitzes for Chicago Bears

Before the season we looked into the tendencies of Alan Williams and noted that he was not going to be a heavy blitzing coordinator. He likes to win with his four men up front, and then mix things up in the back end.

However, a few weeks ago we noticed that as the season has gone on, Williams has cranked up the blitzes. He was blitzing more before Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith got traded, but after the Quinn trade, he realized the blitz was his only source of pressure.

Now, another note is that Williams has not just thrown the sink at quarterbacks. He chooses his timing well. For instance, in both games against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, he rarely blitzed. He knew that Aaron Rodgers would handle the blitz just fine, and it would only hurt the cause.

On the other side, Davis Mills, Jared Goff, and Marcus Mariota saw the heaviest blitz performances. Williams knows the right quarterbacks to go after, and the right ones to avoid blitzing.

While the blitzes have not been the most effective, the fact that Jaquan Brisker leads the team In sacks, Roquan Smith is second, and Jack Sanborn is tied for third shows you that the decisions Williams makes are better than the defensive personnel he has been given.