The Chicago Bears defense looks different from a personnel standpoint already compared to last season. However, it looks even more different from a coaching standpoint. Sean Desai takes over as defensive coordinator and unloaded most of the assistant staff left behind by Chuck Pagano. New additions like Chris Rumph, Bill McGovern, and Mike Pettine have created some intrigue. It also has inevitably led to questions about what direction this unit is going in. It hasn’t removed the expectations though.
What people haven’t stopped to ask is how much the approach in formations would change. Not so much in regards to 3-4 or 4-3. More instead on how they decide to play coverage. It is common knowledge that teams player more nickel defense than ever before in the NFL. That is where they employ five defensive backs on the field. However, GM Ryan Pace hinted at the possibility that the Bears could take it a step further this season by utilizing more dime packages.
That is an interesting indication.
Dime defense is one that employs six defensive backs on the field. What are the benefits of this? Obviously, it allows defenses to more easily defend the pass. Something that is more prevalent in the NFL than ever. Due to how basic the alignment and responsibilities are, it can be easy to employ on any down and distance. It allows for a lot more speed on the field and can let a coordinator get creative with how many defensive linemen and linebackers he puts on the field.
The obvious drawback is having so many defensive backs on the field can make a defense susceptible to the running game. That means a coordinator would need a really strong defensive line and at least one good linebacker to handle that in order for this defense to work. With guys like Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, and Bilal Nichols up front and Roquan Smith behind them? The Bears check that box.
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That begs the question. Who might be spearheading this shift?
Mike Pettine is a big advocate of the dime defense
The former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator became notorious for it during his tenure with the team. No team ran more plays out of the dime the past two years alone than the Packers. Daire Carragher of Lombardi Avenue explained just how often they settled into that alignment.
“While the rest of the league was busy running nickel, Mike Pettine’s unit played more dime defense (six DBs) than any other team in football, at a whopping 50 percent. The rest of the NFL only played dime on around 13 percent of snaps, with some teams using it just once or twice all year.”
Mike Pettine frustrated a lot of Packer fans with this approach. They felt it made Green Bay too weak against the run. Something the San Francisco 49ers exploited to great effect in the NFC Championship back in 2019. Yet there were also major positives too. The two years prior to his arrival, the Packers defense finished 31st and 23rd against the pass. When he took over, they finished 12th, 14th, and 7th. Green Bay went 26-6 the past two seasons doing it that way.
It certainly worked in the NFC championship this past year.
Tom Brady had by far his worst game of the playoffs against the Packers in that game, getting intercepted three times. Yet people blamed Pettine for the loss. It seems the Bears felt his philosophies might bring value to their team given how often he frustrated Matt Nagy in the past. Taking a dime approach does make sense given the array of great quarterbacks they play this season. Not just Brady but Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Baker Mayfield, Derek Carr, Ben Roethlisberger, and Russell Wilson.
If their front seven can handle the run without extra help, then flooding the field with defensive backs could work wonders.