What’s even more surprising that the Chicago Bears promoting Sean Desai to become their new defensive coordinator? How many former players came out in vocal support of it. Sam Acho pleaded with the team to pick Desai even before it happened. He was convinced the young assistant coach could give the defense what it’d been missing since Vic Fangio left.

Kyle Long also offered a favorable comment. Now it seems another joined the chorus of applause in the form of Prince Amukamara. The Bears signed the cornerback in 2017, a lone bright spot of an otherwise forgettable free agent class. He ended up spending three seasons with them and had the best year of his career in 2018. One person who helped him get there? Desai. He explained what makes the young coach so special to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.

“As a coach, No. 1, you have to earn players’ trust and respect,” Amukamara said. “If a player doesn’t trust you or respect you, he’s not listening to you, and if he’s not listening to you, you don’t have an open line of communication to coach him. You need to be able to communicate, deliver the message, message received.

“With Sean, it was there. You can tell he cares for you and what he was saying was good stuff. It made sense and it worked. You can tell he’s also kind of like a mad scientist — not geeky, but you can tell his mind is always working with numbers and percentages and with X’s and O’s. He truly knows what he’s talking about, so guys respected him.”

Amukamara even has an example.

Back in ’18, the Bears were coming off a tough opening night loss in Green Bay. So on Monday Night Football they needed a win over the Seattle Seahawks. After controlling the game most of the way, the Bears saw a 17-3 lead cut to 17-10 in the 4th quarter. Russell Wilson has the ball at the 46-yard line and was driving. The defense needed a stop.

It was there Amukamara remembered something from the weekly preparation. Desai had identified a notable tendency in Seattle’s offense. Whenever the running back lined up wide at the #1 receiver position, it was going to be a hitch throw to him. If the cornerback identified that situation, he had a green light to go get the football.

Sure enough, the Seahawks showed that exact formation. When Wilson looked towards the running back, Amukamara was already breaking to the football. The rest is history.

Sean Desai helped engineer a season-defining play

That pick-six was the only one of Amukamara’s career and helped serve as a springboard to the Bears’ memorable season that year. It was there that the cornerback became convinced Desai would eventually run his own defense and maybe his own team one day. The amount of work he put in to identify that tell in the Seahawks offense was substantial. A good indication of not only how strong his work ethic is but also how sharp his eyes are.

Now those eyes and that mind are in charge of the entire defense. There are concerns about his inexperience. The man has never run a defense in his career. The closest he came was special teams in college. Yet nobody ever said Sean Desai was dumb. He knew this would be a problem so he constructed his staff with that in mind. Most of the assistants he brought in like Chris Rumph, Bill McGovern, and Mike Pettine have prior coordinating experience.

He’ll be able to use them as a sounding board for what and what not to do.

One thing is clear. Sean Desai is a man who knows what he wants. He made that apparent during his first press conference. He expects the Bears defense to be tough, physical, disciplined, and fast. They better swarm to that football. If they don’t, they can seek out a place on the bench or even another team. Chicago has high standards for their defenses and he intends to meet them.