How Can NY Giants Get the Better of the Chicago Bears Defense?

Injuries have marred the New York Giants offense and haven’t allowed them to be productive in recent weeks.

With no Malik Nabers or Cam Skattebo, the Giants will need to figure out some way to make life easier for quarterback Jaxson Dart for the remainder of the season.

So how can they do so against the Chicago Bears defense, which has had its own struggles? Let's dive into who and what the Giants are about to face.

Personnel

Oct 19, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears defensive end Montez Sweat (98) takes the field before the game against the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

The Chicago Bears' edge room hasn’t been very productive this year outside of former Washington Commanders rusher Montez Sweat, who has a team-leading 26 pressures this year.

The Bears had brought in Dayo Odeyingbo as a free agent this past offseason from the Colts, but a recent Achilles injury ended his season.

The Bears will likely rely on Austin Booker and Daniel Hardy to fill in the gap on the edge, but neither of them has played much or been productive in those snaps so far.

This is an edge room that, like the 49ers, is currently depleted with injuries, which should benefit the Giants.

On the interior of the defensive line, the Bears have Grady Jarrett, who recently came back from injury, but who has been a shell of himself this season, and Gervon Dexter, who seems to be coming into his own in year three.

Dexter is currently second on the team in pressures and sacks behind Sweat, with 18 and 3.5, respectively.

The Giants should also see plenty of Andrew Billings at the nose tackle spot, where his only job is to slow down the interior run game, but he hasn’t done much there in 2025.

The Bears' linebackers have shown plenty this year with Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards, who missed half of the season early on with injury, and Noah Sewell.

Edmunds and Edwards are the primary off-ball linebackers, although Sewell will see plenty of snaps, especially as the Bears tend to match personnel, which we will explain later.

Edwards is one of the better coverage linebackers the Giants will see this year, and Edmunds is one of the more well-rounded backers in the NFC.

At cornerback, Nahshon Wright and Tyrique Stevenson will see the bulk of the snaps on the outside, neither of whom has been very impressive this season.

The Bears have an interesting cornerback rotation that the Giants, or any team, won’t see very often this year.

Usually, when teams have a rotation at corner, it’s because an outside corner will go into the nickel, but the Bears will rotate former Giants corner Nick McCloud at outside corner and in the nickel.

With the recently signed CJ Gardner-Johnson coming in as the new nickel, that rotation has now been even more complicated, but McCloud still saw playing time against the Bengals both in the nickel and out wide.

Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard will handle the overwhelming majority of the snaps at safety and will do so at a high level.

Byard primarily plays as the deep safety, whereas Brisker will line up all over the defensive formation, including occasionally playing the edge.

Like the 49ers last week, this Bears secondary has shown promise despite a poor pass rush.

Although cornerback has been an issue, safety and the nickel are both playing at fairly high levels right now.

Scheme

Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Bears' defense under Dennis Allen is consistent with what he has done throughout his career as a defensive play-caller: relying on zone-heavy coverage without blitzing underneath.

When in zone coverage, especially on early downs, the Bears will play a lot of cover three and cover two, before shifting more toward man coverage on late downs.

On late downs, the Bears prefer Cover 1 and Cover 2-man to prevent conversions.

Cover 2-man has two deep safeties playing zone coverage in the deep halves with five defenders in man coverage underneath.

That’s where having linebackers like Edmunds and Edwards helps the Bears do what many other teams can’t do without becoming liabilities, match personnel.

The Bears tend to match personnel better than most teams in 2025.

If an offense comes out in 12-personnel, the Bears will often come out with three linebackers.

It used to be the norm to match personnel, but once teams shifted toward a more pass-heavy approach, defenses would often go “-1.” If an offense had 12 personnel —two wide receivers —defenses would typically go to a nickel defense, featuring three cornerbacks.

The Bears blitz around the league-average(26%), using Edmunds and Brisker as their preferred non-traditional pass-rushers.

Creepers are something that Allen has always liked to use as a defensive play-caller. That is, dropping an edge rusher into coverage in favor of rushing an off-ball player and overloading one side of an offensive line.

Overview

Nov 2, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson (17) runs after the catch against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half at MetLife Stadium. | Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

The Giants' offense and Dart should have time in the pocket to create plays downfield through the passing game; it’s up to the receivers to step up and make those plays.

Receiver Wan’Dale Robinson and tight end Theo Johnson have been seeing more targets in the passing game, but those have been closer to the line of scrimmage.

Personnel-wise, the Giants will likely lean into 12-personnel to force the Bears into base personnel and use play-action to try to scheme tight ends-- —Johnson specifically-- —open downfield.

Although the volume hasn’t been there, quarterbacks have been able to take advantage of the Bears' defense on the ground.

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Personnel

Scheme

Overview

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