Bear Digest

Uncomfortable truth about Chicago Bears defense and opposing QBs

It's being said the Bears won the offseason with all of their offensive upgrades but their defense also needs to prove something.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kyler Gordon (6) celebrates after a fumble recovery. The Bears defense needs to improve as much as their offense.
Kyler Gordon (6) celebrates after a fumble recovery. The Bears defense needs to improve as much as their offense. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The popular narrative behind the Bears is the great improvement they'll have after three consecutive strong offseasons.

As the saying goes, the Bears won the offseason, again.

In fact, CBS Sports' Josh Edwards and NFL.com's Bucky Brooks both use these terms in ranking the Bears at the top in the offseason derby.

"For the second consecutive year, the Chicago Bears are No. 1 on the list with hopes of ascending in the NFC," Edwards wrote, forgetting the strong offseason in 2023 when they made "the trade."

That deal eventually landed them Caleb Williams and numerous others.

"The table is set for the Bears to make a playoff run this season," Brooks concluded. "They have upgraded their play-caller, playmakers and pass protectors to ensure Williams sparks a turnaround as a sophomore."

The firepower and the points are all well and good, but did anyone consider for a minute how their defense might not be everything Matt Eberflus thought it was.

While they weren't the worst in the league, they definitely weren't among the top 10 defenses last year. Their defense has a tainted record of sorts, and it's easy to doubt them.

In 2013 they brought in offensive expert Marc Trestman to rectify all the years their offense was neglected while Lovie Smith's defensive expertise was in charge of the entire show. Trestman built a good offense in one year, and their defense completely collapsed.

In this case, it's entirely possible the Bears defense was never good enough, and something similar to the 2012-13 turnaround could happen with a team that scores a lot of points and allows way too many.

The uncomfortable truth for the Bears is they won games against almost no good quarterbacks over the time Eberflus was here. The defensive personnel didn't change that much this year, Dayo Odeyingbo and Grady Jarrett aside.

Here are the QBs they managed to beat during the Eberflus era:

2024

  • Will Levis 
  • Andy Dalton 
  • Matthew Stafford
  • Trevor Lawrence
  • Malik Willis 

2023

  • Sam Howell  
  • Bryan Hoyer (relieved by Aidan O'Connell) 
  • Bryce Young
  • Joshua Dobbs 
  • Jared Goff 
  • Kyler Murray 
  • Taylor Heinicke (relieved by Desmond Ridder) 

2022

  • Trey Lance 
  • Davis Mills 
  • Mac Jones (relieved by Bailey Zappe)  

Within each of those seasons, the starting quarterbacks the Bears defense beat owned won-loss records of 10-19, 24-43 and 17-29. Add all three years up and the QBs the Bears defense beat under Matt Eberflus had combined records of 51-91 as starters within the respective seasons.

  • The win over the Packers to end last season goes down as over Willis here because Matt LaFleur pulled Jordan Love in the early second quarter to preserve him for the playoffs. However, Love was already down 14-6 when he exited.
  • The Bears beat Stafford with both of his top two receiving targets out, Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp.
  • They beat Goff outdoors in the cold, where he rarely plays well.

The Bears defense did not step up and beat Love, Brock Purdy, Goff indoors or even last year at Soldier Field. They couldn't beat Drake Maye and lost the second time against Murray. They lost last year to Sam Darnold and Goff twice, C.J. Stroud, Jayden Daniels, Geno Smith, and even Anthony Richardson.

Their list of conquests is not the kind to suggest this Bears defense is big time and capable of stepping up to defeat NFL heavyweights in any kind of showdown after they allowed 29 points or more in five of their last 10 games.

“I'm looking at the first game of the year," linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. "I'm fired up about it. Anytime you can open up the season at your house, prime time, like I can't look past that. That’s a big game. So we just got to take it one day at a time, man."

It's Minnesota and J.J. McCarthy, who has never started a game.

They need to be fired up because after that it's Goff, Dak Prescott, Smith, Daniels and later Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Aaron Rodgers, Love, Jaylen Hurts, Purdy and maybe even Shedeur Sanders.

With DA (Allen) and Ben, I think that the main thing we're trying to get accomplished is really shifting the culture, changing the culture and not trying to do what we've done in the past and just try to look forward towards the future," safety Kevin Byard said.

They should because even their successes in the past came with asterisks.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.