For the third time in four seasons, the Bears will hire a defensive coordinator.
Chuck Pagano will retire, according to several league sources. The Colts ’former defensive coach and former coach led the Bears’ defense the past two seasons. It was ranked among the top ten seasons of the two seasons by the Football Outsiders DVOA metric.
Matt Nagy will be the one to sign, as he and GM Ryan Pace are expected to return for the 2021 season.
The defense did not meet expectations, however, given the star power on this side of the ball. After leading the league in 2018 with Vic Fangio with 36 takeaways, the Bears have combined for 37 in Pagano’s two seasons. The budget has also dropped: after 50 sacks on the 18th, the Bears recorded 32 on the 19th and 34 last season.
In the playoff loss to the Saints, the defense had one of their best performances compared to how they had played against the Lions, Packers and Vikings …