Since the last time they played a meaningful snap, the Bears have lost more on defense than they’ve gained.
Safety Kevin Byard, the NFL’s interceptions leader last year, and cornerback Nahshon Wright, its takeaway leader, each left for free agency. The Bears cut Tremaine Edmunds, who was third among all linebackers in interceptions, in a cost-saving move.
Slot cornerback Kyler Gordon is hurt and will miss at least the next four games because of a calf injury that’s bothered him since the spring. Safety Coby Bryant, the team’s high-priced free-agency addition, is out until at least December with a knee injury. And defensive tackle Gervon Dexter, who was second on the team in sacks last year, got traded last month before he could get cut.
In their place step speedy linebacker Devin Bush, safety and first-round pick Dillon Thieneman and a rotation of defensive tackles. And, notably, no new edge rushers.
“You can’t really replace those guys, but we have to try our best to do so,” defensive end Montez Sweat told the Sun-Times on Friday. “The new guys have got to step up and the leaders have to put more on our shoulders.”
When the Bears take the field for their season opener Sunday at the Panthers, then, there will be more questions than answers. Namely: how, exactly, is the defense better this season?
“I think it’s still to be determined,” coordinator Dennis Allen said.
He likes the buy-in he got from his players, who spent the spring months focusing more on their fundamentals than playing the calls in his system. The Bears added speed, at Allen’s insistence. Still, the Bears have to break in new starters at defensive tackle, linebacker, cornerback and safety.
“We’re hard-nosed, we’re going to play physical, we’re going to play fast, we’re going to play poised …” Bush said. “We’re still developing and still learning what that looks like realistically once we get to Week 1 and Week 2 and Week 3.”
Last year, the Bears actually won games because of a defense that led the NFL in takeaways. That masked problems — they gave up the 10th-most points in the NFL, and were the only team in the bottom 10 to make the playoffs. If the Bears want to win more than one postseason game this year, their defense needs to be better.
Sunday might mark the start of the Bears’ great Faustian bargain. When Bears fans prayed for their team to return to relevance, would they have ever known that it wasn’t because of anything their defense did?
If they’re going to get any farther than the second round of the playoffs, though, their defense needs to find answers.
“I have an idea of what it’s supposed to look like,” Sweat said. “Whether we get to it is up to us. We’ll see how we do on Sunday.”