The Bears have a Top 10 Defense

[BringBackDitka54]

Anyone with a pair of functioning eyes saw that the defense saved their asses many many times. Not to mention that the secondary was ballin out along with the d-line. I still consider the linebackers to be meh but they do on occasion prove their worth.

To be fair linebackers have been injured.

 

[xer0h0ur]

The biggest knock on Hicks is the position he plays, by its nature it's less impactful than an edge player. He's a really nice player, but I'd rather have the 10th best EDGE player than the 3rd best 5T. But I don't want to argue semantics, count Hicks if you would like, he's close to it if not already there. They're still missing 2 other play makers. And what I mean by play maker is someone that consistently creates turn overs and/or sacks the qb and/or has sideline to sideline ability to shut down the opposing team.

There are a lot of defenses that have three players. Our recent team history,

2010 had urlacher, peppers and Tillman.

2005-6 had urlacher, brown, and Harris (and that's not counting Briggs and Tillman or Vasher)

Currently the brocos, chiefs, Vikings, Seahawks all have at least 3 play makers.

Opinions will differ, and I'm not going to argue player for player, but I think the bears don't make enough impact plays on defense, (sacks and turn overs). Imagine the defense with a pass rusher that required a double team every play that got 12-15 sacks a year. Or a corner that shut down one side of the field. It would change the defense drastically, and until we get something like that, we aren't going to win games with defense alone. (Not that defense only should be the goal, but that's what elite defenses can do).

That's all I'm saying, I'm not knocking Hicks, just stating the fact that we don't have any elite players that scare you. Having the third best 5T isn't a whole lot better than having the 3rd best left guard in the league. Nice to have, but less impactful by nature.

Btw, I am aware JJ watt plays 5T, but that's what makes him special, he can dominate the pass game from the inside, that's very rare.

Are you nuts? Hicks has 19 tackles, a fumble recovery, 5 sacks and way more pressures through 6 games. He's a damn stud and his contract based on current production seems like Pace got a steal at 12M a year/30M guaranteed.

This was going into the week 6 matchup and we know what he did last week...

Hicks added a sack and 3 tackles. Don't have QB hits or hurries on hand though to list those.

 

[xer0h0ur]

To be fair linebackers have been injured.

Injured, old, broken, suspended, bad. You name it. Definitely need at least one new linebacker in the draft imo. I would prefer an inside linebacker if I had to have my pick. I also want another nose tackle though to split reps with Eddie while hopefully not having him drop off far too much from what Goldman offers you. I feel a lot better about the secondary right now but take my pulse at the end of the season when Pace fails to re-sign Fuller and that tone might change.

 

[BringBackDitka54]

Hicks has been playing out of his mind lately. The fact that he's only 27 is so fucking exciting.

 

[BringBackDitka54]

Injured, old, broken, suspended, bad. You name it. Definitely need at least one new linebacker in the draft imo.

Agreed. When healthy/not suspended our linebackers are awesome, but we've only seen a few glimpses of that so far. I would love to get a pass-rushing linebacker in the first round next year though to take this defense into top-three territory.

 

[hebs]

The biggest knock on Hicks is the position he plays, by its nature it's less impactful than an edge player. He's a really nice player, but I'd rather have the 10th best EDGE player than the 3rd best 5T. But I don't want to argue semantics, count Hicks if you would like, he's close to it if not already there. They're still missing 2 other play makers. And what I mean by play maker is someone that consistently creates turn overs and/or sacks the qb and/or has sideline to sideline ability to shut down the opposing team.

There are a lot of defenses that have three players. Our recent team history,

2010 had urlacher, peppers and Tillman.

2005-6 had urlacher, brown, and Harris (and that's not counting Briggs and Tillman or Vasher)

Currently the brocos, chiefs, Vikings, Seahawks all have at least 3 play makers.

Opinions will differ, and I'm not going to argue player for player, but I think the bears don't make enough impact plays on defense, (sacks and turn overs). Imagine the defense with a pass rusher that required a double team every play that got 12-15 sacks a year. Or a corner that shut down one side of the field. It would change the defense drastically, and until we get something like that, we aren't going to win games with defense alone. (Not that defense only should be the goal, but that's what elite defenses can do).

That's all I'm saying, I'm not knocking Hicks, just stating the fact that we don't have any elite players that scare you. Having the third best 5T isn't a whole lot better than having the 3rd best left guard in the league. Nice to have, but less impactful by nature.

Btw, I am aware JJ watt plays 5T, but that's what makes him special, he can dominate the pass game from the inside, that's very rare.

Pressure up the middle is way worse than pressure from the edge. It also wreaks havoc on the between the tackles run game whereas typically you can run right at elite edge rushers.

That being said I would like another power edge rusher to replace McPhee and another speed rusher. A shutdown corner is harder to find. I'm finally stating to feel like we at least have a foundation to work with while hoping Pace hits on another Urlacher type player in the draft. The chances of that are very thin unfortunately.




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[Big Tyme D]

Watching the game right now....

So far the game just supports my original post. The Bears have a very good Defense... and they are only getting better.

 

[Aesopian]

Watching the game right now....

So far the game just supports my original post. The Bears have a very good Defense... and they are only getting better.

If it wasn't for the injuries last year fans would of saw this earlier but it lead us to Mitchell Trubisky so I'm happy.

 

[Big Tyme D]

Injured, old, broken, suspended, bad. You name it. Definitely need at least one new linebacker in the draft imo. I would prefer an inside linebacker if I had to have my pick.

We've mainly had issues staying healthy at the LB position. The only LB we have now who age is a factor is Freeman(31)... otherwise the next oldest is McPhee (28). If McPhee continues to play well and has gotten past the injury bug.... then the LBs are solid. Floyd and McPhee on the outside... Freeman and Trevathan on the inside... Kiatkowski, Timu and Jones backing them up. Naaa..... the year still needs to be played out... otherwise the position has moved down the teams list in terms of priorities.

 

[SugarWalls]

This defense is 1-2 players away from being truly elite IMO.

I haven't seen enough consistency from McPhee to think anything positive from him. For the most part he is invisible. Bears need 1 solid pass rusher to play opposite floyd, and 1 DB (as well as re-signing Fuller)

 

[Wild_x_Card]

This defense is 1-2 players away from being truly elite IMO.

I haven't seen enough consistency from McPhee to think anything positive from him. For the most part he is invisible. Bears need 1 solid pass rusher to play opposite floyd, and 1 DB (as well as re-signing Fuller)

False. McPhee has had meaniful reps in every game this year in limited duty. Do they still need a pass rusher? Of course.

 

[Wintermute]

Great defense today.

Trevathan's presence cannot be overstated.

 

[pepethebear]

They look more like top 5. They would be ranked as such already if turnovers hadn't led to points they wouldn't have otherwise given up

 

[wazzupi]

A olb pass rush combo of Floyd/Mcphee/1st round pick would be deadly with Goldman/hicks/rotational DE bears need Freeman back imo i still think bears need 1 more CB for the future i wouldn't mind Kyle Fuller getting a pay day with Goldman.

 

[xer0h0ur]

McPhee is on a snap count limit. Doesn't matter at all he is 28. His body is that of a 35 year old NFL player. We need to replace him and I don't want to count on Freeman much longer either.

 

[rawdawg]

Don't understand why there's a "0" in the OP. Typo?

 

[Aesopian]

This defense is 1-2 players away from being truly elite IMO.

I haven't seen enough consistency from McPhee to think anything positive from him. For the most part he is invisible. Bears need 1 solid pass rusher to play opposite floyd, and 1 DB (as well as re-signing Fuller)

I wonder if that injury is still bothering him, he hasn't looked like the player he was before the injury.

 

[iueyedoc]

The problem is, none of these guys are playmakers. Goldman, freeman and Hicks are all nice players but none of them need to be game planned for. In order for a defense to be good, you need impact players, preferably one at each level. This defense is good enough to keep us in games, but we aren't winning any games because of the defense.

Its unfortunate that they haven't hit any home runs in the draft and landed an impact player on defense.

#EPICcalleditfail

 

[iueyedoc]

Last week it was fabricating lame nicknames.

This week we are dispatching old earned nicknames for some newer Y2K, Color Rush nicknames.


Cool?

Oh, and has Pace traded for Cooper, Bryant, or Gordon yet?

 

[Nicker]

#EPICcalleditfail

Whoa, epic dude...
it's not 2005 in case you haven't noticed. No one says that anymore, buddy.

The bears do have some emerging talent though. Hicks is having a career year and he'll only be 28 next month. If he can keep up the level he's shown over the first 7 games of the season, I have no problem calling him a playmaker. I like Hicks, good player and a good guy.

Jackson is certainly someone to watch, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. If he gives up a long touchdown next week people on this board will be ready to bench him, so he hasn't earned a "playmaker" moniker from me just yet.

That being said, the defense is definitely for real, I just think they need someone to emerge as a force, Hicks is probably there, now we need someone in the secondary, maybe it's Jackson, maybe fuller but right now we don't have anyone consistently making game changing plays in the secondary, one awesome game from Jackson and 3-4 nice games by fuller don't necessarily mean they have become all pros.

It's not all black and white, This board cracks me up sometimes because everything is feast or famine. If the bears get torched by New Orleans next week, I'm not going to think they're a shitty defense, and neither should you.