Plenty has been said about the new-look Chicago Bears offense expected for the upcoming 2025 regular season. Surely, an offensive line that has gone from the worst on paper to arguably one of the best in just a few short months, and new weaponry for Caleb Williams to utilize as the franchise quarterback, gets fans excited. We’ve waited for (good) fireworks to happen consistently for years now.
Yet... here is where this old-headed defensive stan will chime the following phrase. “Offense sells tickets, and it will get you to the big show, but **defense wins championships.**” The Vic Fangio-led crew in Philly — hey that name sounds very familiar — serves as the latest example. And the Bears’ defense was plenty bad in its own right for far too many reasons.
So much so that newly extended GM Ryan Poles recognized an immediate need to rebuild the defense from a philosophical standpoint while retooling the depth charts within the trenches. The offensive line was hideous, yes, and demanded the most attention. The defensive line was but a hollowed shell once their best players started falling out due to injuries and coaching malpractice.
On paper, the fronts utilized and basic concepts will look the same. Dennis Allen, much like Matt Eberflus, is well-rehearsed in the concepts of a Tampa 2 style of defense. Yet these two coaches could not be any more different from one another. From actual coverage concepts ran behind the defensive front — front =/= scheme — to the physical makeup of players themselves stands to be a complete departure from what we’ve seen since 2022.
Bring on the Beef!
Chicago Bears v Arizona Cardinals Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images
The most blatant change on paper is the sheer amount of bulk added to the Bears’ defensive line this offseason. Both returning players and newcomers alike have been working to build lean mass on their frames, particularly at defensive tackle. The amount of size gained along the defensive line was annotated after reviewing the team’s official site and listings for players height and weight. Below are the major highlights for the amount of gains across their D-line.
DT Andrew Billings - 311 lbs. (2024) / 340 lbs. (2025)
DT Gervon Dexter Sr. - 312 lbs. (2024) / 326 lbs. (2025)
DT Jonathan Ford - 338 lbs. (2024) / 346 lbs. (2025)
DT Zacch Pickens - 291 lbs. (2024) / 303 lbs. (2025)
DT Grady Jarrett* - 288 lbs. (2024) / 294 lbs. (2025)
DT Shemar Turner** - 280 lbs. (2024) / 293 lbs. (2025)
DE Montez Sweat - 262 lbs. (2024) / 270 lbs. (2025)
DE Dayo Odeyingbo*** - 276 lbs. (2024) / 282 lbs. (2025)
DE Dominique Robinson - 253 lbs. (2024) / 275 lbs. (2025)
DE Austin Booker - 240 lbs. (2024) / 246 lbs. (2025)
*Played for the Atlanta Falcons in 2024
**Listed playing weight for Shemar Turner while at Texas A&M
***Played for the Indianapolis Colts in 2024
As we can see in plain sight, this will be a much beefier group compared to what has been utilized while under Matt Eberflus. This new strength and conditioning staff has been hard at work adding size to everyone’s frame. Mark Philippi’s arrival as an assistant brings with him experience as a professional powerlifter along with the recognition of being crowned America’s Strongest Man in 1997. I also don’t think these will be the final playing weights for 2025 once the regular season is underway.
Gervon Dexter Sr. got freakin’ swole and has played at over 330 while with the Florida Gators. He looks over 330 right now with lean mass. Grady Jarrett came into the league at 305 and might be returning to his former weight when recording his two Pro Bowl seasons in Atlanta. I can see Shemar Turner getting over 295 this year, then eventually over 300 as he settles in at defensive tackle. This is only the beginning of what will become a whole new identity in the seasons to come.
With Matt Eberflus, we saw more of an emphasis for defensive linemen to penetrate quickly into the backfield with the linebackers maintaining their gap integrity behind them. While penetration is still an objective under Dennis Allen, like Vic Fangio, he also places a higher premium in the defensive line controlling their gaps. Thus, the need to bulk up what was a fairly soft interior when facing the run and looking to create pressure up the middle.
How Dennis Allen chooses to align these players will also be significantly different than what we've gotten accustomed to lately.
The 4-man front still reigns supreme... with notable differences
SPORTS-FBN-BEARS-SCHEDULE-TB John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
With the exceptions of Vic Fangio, Chuck Pagano, and Sean Desai, the Bears have traditionally run a 4-man front throughout the 105-year existence of the franchise. Matt Eberflus brought with him a return to those same concepts when hired as head coach in 2022, flipping a 3-4 front featuring 2-high safeties and more man coverage into the more common 4-3 with Tampa 2 zone concepts run behind it. Dennis Allen’s concepts for his base alignments can be described as a blending of Vic Fangio’s and Matt Eberflus’ ideas.
What has been noticed with the New Orleans Saints and Dennis Allen is his tendency to mix up the alignments and techniques used along the front seven. Most notable has been the Saints' use of a 4-3 “under” concept, which, by design, frees up the Will linebacker to make plays while bringing the Sam linebacker down to the line of scrimmage. While in the “under” comes the increased usage of various pressure and blitz packages to throw the opposing offense off rhythm.
For Dennis Allen’s first six seasons in New Orleans, he blitzed on 32% of opponents' dropbacks, marking it the 5th highest in the league while he served as defensive coordinator. After being promoted to head coach in 2022, that rate plummeted to 20% which was notched as the 2nd lowest for the last two years. One can argue he became much more conservative as a head coach compared to when he’s strictly a defensive coordinator. A lot of this good data came from Courtney Cronin of ESPN.
While Matt Eberflus was in town, we’d see the Bears line up in the customary defensive line techniques of 7-3-1-7 with an “over” concept when the Sam LB is on the field. That would also hold true when their Nickel package was subbed in, with an occasional wide-9 thrown in before the snap. Otherwise, there really wasn’t much of a change-up when it came to how the base alignment would be called on the field.
Under Dennis Allen, the 7-3-1-7 d-line alignment will see plenty of usage, but we will also see quite a lot of the “G” (two 3-techs at the same time) as well as “tight” (two 1-techs at the same time) while mixing in oddball fronts that will have linemen at the 5 and 0 techniques. There will be times when a defensive end lines up in a two-point stance as well. It’s important to note that players like Montez Sweat, Shemar Turner, Grady Jarrett, Gervon Dexter Sr., and Austin Booker have all played in both 4-3 and 3-4 alignments during their respective careers.
Go get your man
NFL Pro Bowl Games Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images
Now we arrive at the biggest change schematic-wise for the Bears this upcoming 2025 season. Much has been written and discussed about Matt Eberflus and his usage of the zone-based Tampa 2 made famous by the likes of Tony Dungy, Monte Kiffin, Lovie Smith, and Rod Marinelli. To an extent, we will see some Tampa 2 zone run by Dennis Allen.
It will also be much rarer to see Tampa 2 zone moving forward. Dennis earned his chops earlier in his career within defenses that utilized a heavy dose of cover one man and even cover two man up until his first gig as a defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in 2011. Throughout Dennis’ experience is a common theme of locking down the opposing team’s top receiving threat with his best players shadowing them in coverage.
Meanwhile, the Bears possess one of the very best young groups of defensive backs in the league, especially when considering their ability to play man coverage. Just give this clip a listen from Mina Kimes of ESPN as she describes the marriage between Dennis Allen and the Bears’ personnel.
Oh, so it’s a good idea to match your play calling to the strengths of your roster? And it’s also a good idea to design a concept that players can understand and execute at a high level? Fancy that.
Aside from the usage of the good ole sarcasm font, Mina brings up one of the most overlooked advantages the Bears have held for years - Jaylon Johnson as a shutdown corner.
We would occasionally see JayJay shadow receivers like Davante Adams in the past, and younger players like Tyrique Stevenson played in man-heavy systems during their college days. This season will be the first time we see the Bears’ corners play predominantly in man coverage, with cover one and sometimes cover two man with two-high safeties being the staples. Kyler Gordon is one of the best nickels in the league in man coverage, and he will see plenty of action this season, as suggested by his sizeable contract extension earlier this year.
As this season progresses, we should expect more changes to happen. One that is worth keeping an eye on is whomever wins the competition at Sam LB between Noah Sewell and Ruben Hyppolite II, I have a strong feeling the team has big plans in store for the latter given his unique combination of size (6-0 236 lbs.) and speed (4.39u) to possibly factor in as a heavy nickel or in other personnel groupings. Dennis Allen has always loved mixing in a tweener at linebacker or safety to maximize flexibility in coverage.
On paper, and I guess in the upcoming edition of Madden 26, the two defenses look fairly close. In actuality, the two are almost polar opposites. One plays it safe with the conservative route and daring quarterbacks to beat them down the seam, the other aggressively challenges every yard on the field. An aggressive play caller on offense, Ben Johnson, has his match in the form of Dennis Allen, an equally aggressive play caller on defense. Let's see that nasty “don’t give an inch” demeanor make its return in Chitown.