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

4. Chicago Bears have mixed man and zone

Another signature of Alan Williams is being a heavy zone coordinator. That comes with not blitzing as he disguises zone coverage in the back end and looks for turnovers that way. If you blitz, a quarterback can pick you apart as the defenders drop into zone.

However, this is another situation where Alan Williams had no issue adjusting his rate of man coverage by the opponent. You can see how often he called man coverage snaps below.

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Early on he played the Green Bay Packers and their inexperienced wideouts, then faced the Houston Texans. He went heavy man in those games. He mixed and matched through the year, but games nine through 11 show how he can vary up his coverage by opponents.

Against the Miami Dolphins, you cannot play man coverage Tyreek Hills and Jaylen Waddle. That was their season low. Then, he played the Lions, when Tom Kennedy and Kaliff Raymond were behind Amon-Ra St. Brown as the top three wideouts. He shifted coverage to ASB but played man against the weaker wideouts.

Lastly, against the Atlanta Falcons, it is smarter to go back to the zone, because Marcus Mariota will run against man corners who turn their backs. Forcing Mariota to throw into zone windows is when he is at his worst.

Again, the results are varied. Tom Kennedy ended up with a few big catches for Detroit, but calling man coverage against him is still the smart call. This is another situation where the personnel does not match the play calling.