Resistance Is Expected from Bears
Finding talent fits for a new style of Bears defense within the current roster will be difficult.
It won't be nearly as difficult as getting those players to adapt to the principles of this new style, according to new Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams.
Williams is tasked with guiding the switchover as well as turnover resulting from a 3-4 defense moving to a 4-3. It means different uses for linebackers and different techniques and sizes for linemen, but the former Vikings defensive coordinator and Colts secondary coach has seen this type of change work in Indianapolis.
He fully expects some difficulty and even resistance based on the Colts experience.
"They didn’t buy in at first," he said.
The hard part of it is the running. As coach Matt Eberflus said at his introductory press conference, players must come wearing their track shoes. The cover-2 style of defense in a 4-3 like the Bears will use requires players running to the ball from all points of the field.
"What we're going to ask them to do is going to be ... it's not difficult but it's extremely hard," Williams said. "We're going to ask guys to give us 100 percent when they get on the field–100 percent hustle. We're going to ask guys to be intense. We're going to ask them to do some things that they might not be used to doing."
The conversion to Eberflus' HITS philosophy—an acronym standing for Hustle, Intensity, Taking care of the ball and Smarts.—improved the Colts almost immediately but it wasn't simple.
"At first, there wasn't a buy-in because it was difficult but they little by little, they saw how the HITS philosophy translated into us playing well," Williams said. "They saw, based on us being able to measure those things, they saw how we were improving not in big leaps.
"Our thing was 1% better, 1% better and then ultimately those things turned into wins and as we all know this league is measured in your wins and losses so that HITS principle turned into turnovers, turnovers turned into us winning football games. That was the buy in when they saw the results of all that hard work, all the running to the ball and not just in games but every day in practice, the attention to detail in the walk throughs."
If it's going to work with the Bears, some of the players will need to fit into different styles of play. The edge rushers—Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn and Trevis Gipson—all have played in this kind of scheme before. Quinn and Mack, though, are at least "middle-aged" for NFL defensive players as they're in their 30s.
This isn't a problem concerning Williams.
"First I'd say you have no idea how exciting it is to be here and having those guys," Williams said. "Second, I would say shame on you to say those guys are middle-aged when we're in the age of our athletes taking care of their bodies, eating better, going, playing longer."
Williams pointed out how long Tom Brady played, although that's a rather extreme case.
"I'm not sure what middle-aged is," he said. "I keep looking at myself, and I'm 50-something, and I keep thinking, 'You know what? I'm a young man. I'm not at the end.'
"So, I would say to that, I'm going to open up my scope, I'm going to think outside the box. Then, I'll wait for those guys to show me what they have."
If longer careers are more typical now, then it would be accurate to put Quinn and Mack in the middle somewhere, or at least just past the middle.
"So that means they have a lot of years left, and a lot of tread on the tires," Williams said. "So with that in mind, I'm excited."
Another player exciting Williams is Roquan Smith, who might be his new team's version of Darius Leonard as a Will linebacker if not the middle linebacker.
"When you look at the tape, you don't have to be a football aficionado to go, 'You know what, the way that dude plays, he likes ball,'" Williams said. "Roquan likes ball. Roquan loves ball. And when you have a guy that loves ball and you're as smart as he is, I remember him coming out at the combine, even (being) a defensive backs coach, his reputation preceded him. He was a guy they said, 'Hey, he's quick twitch, he's fast, he's instinctive, he's a leader.'
"So when you have a guy like that, that's a guy that you want in the middle of the field and that’s a guy that you’re looking forward to getting to know, that you're looking forward to coaching."
He called the comparison to Leonard legitimate.
"Both guys are extremely productive, both guys are athletic, both guys, you can tell they like football by the way they play," Williams said.
One thing The defense will need to operate the way it's intended to work is a three technique at defensive tackle. That's the attacking tackle off the guard's outside shoulder like Tommy Harris in the Bears 4-3 with the 2006 Super Bowl team.
"We want that guy to play with relentless effort," Williams said. "We want that guy to be smart. That guy is one of the staples of the defense because one of the things that I do believe is that a good defense is built through the middle. That's the middle part of our defense."
The current crop of players may not hold someone like this. Maybe they look at film and decide Bilal Nichols should be re-signed because he can do it. Otherwise, they'll be looking somewhere for their DeForest Buckner.
"That guy is going to be a tremendous part of our success of Chicago Bears football and especially Chicago Bears defensive football," Williams said.
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