Bears Defensive Players in Real Need of Big Turnarounds

When the Bears took an objective look back at the season and at numbers, they couldn't lay every defensive problem on injuries.

Several players experienced declines in production, and at least part of it could be traced to injuries.

On the other hand, the raw numbers can't lie. It was still a top 10 defense and a top five defense in points allowed and three players in particular experienced drastic declines in production. Another one in his first year with the team didn't live up to expectations.

It's these three players who need bounce-back years.

Obviously there are numerous other players who need to rebound from problems, but almost all of those involve injuries which deprived them of an opportunity to achieve better production.

Here's who the Bears need to bounce back defensively in 2020. These four players are taking up about 22% of their salary cap space so more is expected.

4. Buster Skrine

It's not that big things were expected from Skrine, but he didn't produce them anyway. He came in with a reputation for penalties with 78 for his career, and committed only two, and one was on special teams. But besides his lack of penalties, there was a corresponding lack of production. He had five passes defensed, the lowest total since his rookie year in 2011. His Pro Football Focus grade of 59.2 was better than all but two other seasons but still poor. The Bears can't afford to see opposing quarterbacks picking on his lack of height again by moving their taller receivers from outside into the slot on big passing downs. Skrine has to bounce back from last year.

3. Eddie Jackson

Sure, they just gave him a $58.4 million contract so they don't think of him as a problem. None of these players who need to increase production are problems, but if they don't get better numbers the defense as a whole won't improve.

"He's a natural leader," Bears GM Ryan Pace said. "It's easy. He backs it up with his play. There's not many guys that have that kind of instincts and those kinds of ball skills. Also his football intelligence—he's a highly intelligent football question."

And yet, Jackson went through the roughest of his three years as far as production.

His two interceptions matched his rookie year, nowhere near his six interceptions of 2018.

He had one fumble recovery and one forced fumble. As a rookie he recovered three fumbles.

He didn't get into the end zone and in each of his other two seasons he did it at least twice.

The big problem with Jackson was being teamed with a safety who failed to complement his skills. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is a Jackson clone who played very well, but the Bears needed someone who could be closer to the line of scrimmage and be able to get back into coverage, freeing up Jackson for more plays on the ball. Also, Chuck Pagano pointed out several times during the season how Jackson would get fewer plays on the ball because teams were simply keeping it away from him.

Offenses could afford to be choosy because the pass rush wasn't getting home.

Jackson's Pro Football Focus grade of 66.9 is a drastic decline from his 93.2 of 2018, and actually almost what he had as a rookie. This indicates something changed drastically within the defense or else the player isn't what the Bears believed when they sent all the cash his way. 

To date, the Bears haven't supplied a reasonable alternative to pair Jackson with in the secondary so his talents can be maximized. It's difficult to see how this situation is going to improve. 

If they fail in the draft to find someone who can do this, Jackson's chances of rebounding look greatly diminished. 

2. Kyle Fuller

A Pro Bowl player had an offseason? The numbers don't lie. Pro Bowls can reflect how players performed the previous year, not during the season of that meaningless game.

Fuller made 12 pass defenses. The previous year he made 21 and the year before 22. His three interceptions were fine but well down from his seven of 2018 and not even at the level of his rookie year (4).

A telling stat in Fuller's case was pass rating against when targeted. In 2018 when the defense hit a high note, Fuller's passer rating against was an outstanding 63.7. It's difficult to duplicate this. He was allowing only 56.7% completions, according to figures from Sportradar, the official NFL statistics partner.

Last year Fuller's passer rating against skyrocketed to 102.0. Quarterbacks completed 70.8% on him when they targeted him.

Not surprisingly, Fuller's Pro Football Focus grade plummeted from 83 to 62.5, the worst he's had since his rookie year of 2014.

Part of the jump can be traced to passers with more time to throw. Part of it lies with the change in defensive coordinators and the scheme. Part can go to having the secondary disrupted with new players involved, hurting communications.

And part of the blame has to go to Fuller. The Bears need him to bounce back with more big plays than in 2019.

1. Khalil Mack

We've all heard the countless reasons by now why Mack's sack total fell from 12 1/2 to 8 1/2, the lowest total since his rookie year. The injuries on the line, the lack of production by teammates all contributed to allowing offenses to double- and triple-team Mack.

There's every reason to believe the impact of the injuries led to decreased production. Mack had no visible injuries like he suffered in 2018 when he still made 12 1/2 sacks.

Mack's Pro Football Focus grade of 86.2 was still an excellent number, but the worst of his career and the first time since his rookie season when he failed to achieve a mark of 90.  

Last year he made the same number of tackles as in 2018, 47.

At least as telling as Mack's sack total was his forced fumbles total of five. It was only one less than the previous year, but he had four after the first four games. Then the injury occurred to Hicks and quarterbacks were a little freer to step up or to the left and throw. Offensive lines could devote more attention to preventing Mack from bolting around the edge and selling out to reach out by reaching to knock the ball out of the passer's hand.

The sack totals reflected this, as well. He had only three in the season's second half and 5 1/2 in the first half.

These are all explanations for what happened and why it happened. The problem is Mack has to actually bounce back because when you're counting for 12.5% of your team's salary cap in 2020 there isn't much room for lack of production, even if the reasons are more explanations than excuses.

"Obviously a premier defense player," Pace said of Mack at season's end. "I think you can definitely tell the attention that opponents focus on him, that's a big part of it.

"Khalil wants more production. We know that it's there. There's so many things that he does that I think go a little unnoticed–the way he plays the run, the attention the opponents have put upon him. But again, I think when you look at our whole team, we all want to play better and Khalil wants to play better. He knows he can play better, but trust me, we're very fortunate to have Khalil Mack on our team."

No one questions otherwise, but with Robert Quinn now rushing the passer and Hicks healthy, the expectations on a bounce back by Mack will be greater than ever.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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