Chicago Bears: 7 Offseason moves to make for 2020 to return to playoffs

Changes on defense

The Chicago Bears defense was a force of nature in 2018. They led the league in just about every category. Of course, many people expected regression in 2019, especially with a new defensive coordinator. Chuck Pagano wanted to just tweak the defense and continue its success.

The defense did take a step back this season but injuries played a big part in that. Also, the defense went from ranking first in points allowed in 2018 to fourth in 2019. This unit was still elite, just not ridiculously dominant.

There are some tweaks that need to be made to the defense. One area that took a big dip was with turnovers. In 2018, the Bears led the league in turnovers with 36 total. Of those, they had an amazing 27 interceptions. In 2019, those totals went down to 19 total turnovers and 10 interceptions.

One reason for that was moving Eddie Jackson from free safety to strong safety to allow for the signing of Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Jackson is a special talent when he is at free safety. he can roam the field and find the ball.

The Bears need to let Clinton-Dix walk and find themselves a box safety. Jackson needs to be back in his natural position creating havoc.

The Bears also need to find someone to play opposite Khalil Mack. The team spent a lot of capital to acquire him and lock him down with an extension. They need to get the bodies off him. With a healthy Hicks and another effective pass rusher defenses won’t be able to key in on him anymore. With other players attracting attention, Mack is freed to be his dominant self.

The Bears have decisions to make at linebacker. Danny Trevathan, Nick Kwiatkoski, Aaron Lynch and Kevin Pierre-Louis are all free agents. With Trevathan’s injury, the Bears might be able to re-sign him at a discount. I don’t think the team will sign all of them back so I expect them to hit the free agency route and possibly use one of their two second-round picks on an edge rusher.