In a sense, the Bears are following the same course in building their defense as when they built their last great defense.
Sure, it's a 4-3 defense this time and not a 3-4 the way it was during the Vic Fangio era. It's also getting a new Bears defensive leader under Ben Johnson before the true potential of the players on the defensive side was realized under Matt Eberflus.
They seemed poised to accomplish something big last year before the Hail Mary and subsequent injuries.
Fangio built a defense up gradually from 2015 when he had players like Pernell McPhee, Antrel Rolle, Will Sutton, Christian Jones and Shea McClellin, until he had Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, Danny Trevathan and Eddie Jackson to dominate offenses.
The Bears will not need to build up the talent pool as it largely exists already through GM Ryan Poles feeding the whims of Eberflus, who did know what he wanted for an effective defense even if he couldn't figure out how to use timeouts.
Now it's Dennis Allen taking over a defense with personnel perhaps slightly off from ideal for his scheme but not by much.
“I've had the pleasure of sitting in on a number of his meetings so far, and it's everything I thought it would be," coach Ben Johnson said. "He’s a guy that's done it at a high level. He's coordinated, he's orchestrated a number of high performing defenses. Whether its points allowed, whether it's third down defense, whether it's red zone, he's got a plan.
"He's super smart. We were just sitting in my office yesterday talking about some game management things that have popped up–whether it's here in Chicago, where I was in the past, where he was in the past and we see the game naturally the same way. He's aggressive by nature. I can appreciate that about him."
The great question the Bears face is not about their personnel skill level but how long it will take them to get it operating efficiently.
It's not a simple approach. Even the big guys up front are asked to do things differently at times, unlike in Eberflus' scheme. Already defensive end Montez Sweat labeled it "complex."
“Coach Allen's defense is a lot of different, you know what I mean?" defensive tackle Gervon Dexter said. "He throws in a lot of different fronts, a lot of different ways to get after the quarterback and stuff like that.
"So I think being the type of guy I am, I can play in a lot of those different fronts. So just being in it and he'll move guys around the way, and the offense, he'll switch it up on the offense. It’ll be good for not only me, but everybody on the defensive line and on this defense.”
The defensive linemen will attack but not always in the gap and straight upfield. Sometimes their goal is driving blockers back and disrupting the scheme. Other times it's working in conjunction with blitzes
"We definitely want to be an attacking-style defense," defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. "We want to be fast, physical, know what we need to do on our assignments. He's been pretty clear on his expectations for everybody involved, from the front to the back end.
"I think it's going to take a lot of work for us to be able to achieve what we're capable of, but that's the beautiful part of it. It's a process, day in and day out, and just establishing the culture, the way we want to practice, the way we want to play the game. That's what it's about."
The players in back might be challenged more than anyone because they'll play a new way instead of sitting in zones. It will be a mix of coverages to an even greater extent than the linemen will alter their tactics. The emphasis on more man-to-man coverage will run contrary to how they played in a predominantly cover-3 and cover-2 zone scheme like Eberflus used.
DBs will take on different roles at times in an effort to disguise, and safety Jaquan Brisker loves it. Players like Brisker and Kyler Gordon should flourish.
"Show my versatility, show that I'm a Swiss Army Knife," Brisker said of how he'll be used. "(Kevin Byard), and we're going to have plenty of other DBs out there, which I love about (Allen's) defense. He moves pieces around, we run so many different things, and we can make it all look the same, or vice versa, things like that, that's what I love about it.
"DA, he's smart. I know that he is going to put us in the right positions. It's going to be smooth."
The problem with more complex is it can take longer to work it correctly.
Allen's Raiders defenses of the 2012-14 era never really took to it and he has altered his style somewhat since then. They never ranked higher than 28th in scoring or 18th in yards allowed and actually got worse. By the time his head coaching stint ended with a firing, they had the league's worst defense.
With New Orleans, his first defense gave up the most points in the league and only moved up one slot in Year 2. By the third year he had personnel in place and scheme working well enough to move to 10th in scoring defense and 17th in yards. From 2018 through 2023, he never had a defense worse than 14th in yards or points allowed. He had three defenses finish top seven in yards allowed and four top nine in points allowed.
That was a long time to wait for success, though, from 2015 until 2018. It was as long as it took for the Bears to get it together under Fangio.
The Bears believe such patience won't be required because they've spent four drafts and free agency periods adding defensive talent regardless of scheme. It's just going to be a matter of learning and repetition in practice to get the communication and fits correct.
Last year before training camp and during it, finishing top five on defense became a crusade eventually unrealized.
"Still with some of the guys from that team last year, we want to be the best defense in this league," cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. "This defense wants to be the best defense this year."
It's going to be difficult but a fresh start could help. Adding Shemar Turner, Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo can't hurt.
"I wouldn't say a fresh start, I would just say some of the guys come out with the same mentality," Stevenson said. "We add some pieces in, some dogs.
"It's time to hunt.”
It might be time to hunt, but until they know what their doing in the scheme more realistic immediate goals could be in order.
It's not likely to be a case where the defense carries the offense while it improves like they tried for a few years. Instead, they all need to figure it out together as quickly as possible.
