Yes, he's not as good of a DC as fangio was. Few are, fangio was fantastic for years. Thats not a slight at pagano.
The major difference in this defense has nothing to do with playcalling or scheme, it all has to do with talent. Legit the opposite of our major issues on the offensive side of the ball. People blame pagano for not being aggressive, but don't understand why he can't be. It's all talent, we don't have the linebacker/db talent to blitz on a regular basis against good QB's.
On the dline, we have no real nose tackle. Hicks is getting doubled up a lot more. Nichols, while playing great, isn't a difference maker. The loss of Eddie Goldman shows up hard in the run game.
For linebackers, the only one playing well is roquan. He's having an all pro year, outside of that mack is having the worst year of his career. Granted, his worst year still makes a ton of previous #1 bears edge rushers look like jokes, but you expect more from him based on the cap hit. Quinn is mostly worthless. Seems like he's either hurt or doesn't fit this scheme. Danny T is a complete liability in pass coverage nowadays, and can't shed a block anymore. Thats where the goldman loss hurts the most. Lineman are getting to the second level, and its hurting Danny the most. He's just not athletic enough to get around slow ass linemen anymore.
In the secondary, fuller is having a great year. Lowest completion % of his career. There are no turnovers, however. Why? No pressures. We were bottom five in the NFL in pressures before the last couple weeks, now we are in the mid teens. That's still terrible considering what we have invested in the guys who should be rushing the QB.
Jaylon is fantastic for a rookie, but he has had plenty of mental lapses, which is to be expected. I can't critique him since he shouldn't have been put into this position this early. That Artie burns injury really hurt the secondary.
Outside of that, everyone in this secondary is trash. Legit trash. Skrine is one of the worst slot CB's in the league. Eddie is one of the worst FS's in the league. Gipson is decent, but worse than the last two SS's we had play next to jackson. The young guys are being thrown to the fire.
Overall, you can scapegoat whoever you want, but at the end of the day to me this feels no different from when the cubs tried to blame hitting and pitching coaches for their players inabilities. The issues on defense are all talent based. These guys just suck compared to 2018. Some fell off a cliff, some of them are new players who just suck. Either way, this isn't that talented of a D anymore.
