Chicago Bears: Chuck Pagano excited about his defense

The Chicago Bears turned to Chuck Pagano to coach their elite defense after Vic Fangio’s departure. Pagano is excited beyond belief to have this job.

After the Chicago Bears fired John Fox in January of 2018, a multitude of fans demanded that whoever the new coach was the team should keep defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Fangio built a defense that ranked in the top 10. In order to continue to excel, they felt Fangio needed to stay.

Fangio did stay, and with the additions of Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith, among others, the defense was the best in terms of scoring and turnovers, and the most dominant unit in the league. Fangio did a good job of working with the players to have them turn up their games.

With that defensive success, Fangio took his talents to Denver to become the head coach of the Broncos. The Bears then handed over the keys to their Ferrari over to Chuck Pagano. Now he is tasked with trying to bring out even more from the defense.

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Pagano is excited to coach this defense (and, really, who wouldn’t be excited?). He doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel but wants to add a few wrinkles that should keep the unit successful.

How excited is Pagano to coach this defense? In a recent interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, he said he felt like a kid again when asked how exciting it was to be in Chicago.

"As much as it ever has been for me. When you get it taken away from you — it was great to have time off to do some things I haven’t been able to do in 33 years — [but] you ask any player that’s been let go or put on the street and then -given another opportunity with another team, another locker room, [with] coaches to be around, players to be around, [you] come out here and run around like a kid again. There’s nothing better."

That is pretty good considering Pagano was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts for six seasons (2012-17) and went to the playoffs for three of those seasons. He also coached a Baltimore Ravens defense in 2011 that was a top-three unit.

Pagano isn’t backing away from making this defense even better. His style of defense is more aggressive than Fangio. Under Fangio, Mack and Leonard Floyd dropped back in coverage a number of times.

Take, for example, when the Bears faced Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 6. Mack, who recorded five sacks and 25 quarterback pressures up to that point, dropped back in coverage 18 times and rushed 14 times. Floyd rushed 13 times and dropped back 13 times as well.

With Pagano, I don’t think they’ll drop back as much. He’ll have them rush as much as possible, putting as much pressure as possible on the quarterback. That pressure forces the quarterback to throw earlier than he wants, causing mistakes and turnovers. Remember, pressure on the quarterback is a staple of great Chicago Bears defenses over the years.

I think the fans are just as excited for Pagano as he is of the defense. While many “experts” around the league expect the Chicago Bears defense to take a step back in 2019, Pagano will instill a breath of fresh air that allows the defense to take another big step, this one into all-time greatness.