LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Throughout the 2026 offseason, the Chicago Bears said they would prioritize fixing the team's weakest link: disrupting opposing quarterbacks.
The Bears were interested in acquiring five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby until learning the price of a trade. Chicago felt that the way it handled free agency left multiple options available in the draft, but the Bears used only one of their seven draft picks on a defensive lineman, and not until selecting Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg 213th overall.
The narrative around how the Bears will fix a unit that ranked 31st in pass rush win rate (29%) and 29th in pressure percentage (28%) went from needing more talent to emphasizing better coaching to getting the most out of the players the Bears already have.
"We're certainly going to coach better than what we did a year ago," coach Ben Johnson said. "It starts there. We've made a concerted effort with how we're going to get that done."
That directive caused defensive coordinator Dennis Allen to look inward to find a solution.
"We had a lot of discussions this offseason about a lot of different things, and one of the things we identified was me," Allen said. "We focused so much on installing all the scheme last year because it was brand new, and we do have a high volume of things we carry in the defense. We focused so much on that that we lost sight of some of the fundamentals and techniques that it takes to function, to do those things.
"I don't think we were as fundamentally sound defensively as we needed to be. So how do we have to coach it better? Well, let's minimize how much we're focused on the scheme, OK, and let's focus on not what we're gonna do but how we're gonna do it. I think that's how we're gonna improve."
Bears defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett can't remember another time in his career when coaches spent the first two weeks of the offseason without dissecting scheme. There was no talk of specific fronts or where players would line up. Everything was focused on three specific goals to hone technique:
Improving get-off -- a player's ability to drive off their dominant leg to get up field. Body lean -- using a front- and side-angle video to see which players are pushing and generating more power while in the process of rushing. Putting those things together to finish in the backfield and disrupt the quarterback. "We've been out at practice and you can see the improvement of the guys" Garrett said. "You spend two weeks and all I'm watching is individual. I'm not watching the scheme. I'm watching our get-off, our pad level, I'm watching our drill work. We're correcting that. We're fixing that."