Chicago Bears are hoping a focus on fundamentals will help their pass rush

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — The Chicago Bears are hoping a renewed focus on fundamentals will help energize their pass rush.

Defensive lineman Gervon Dexter is already seeing results.

“Way different,” Dexter said Tuesday on the first day of the team’s mandatory minicamp. “It’s night and day, in my opinion.”

Chicago went 11-6 last season and won the NFC North in coach Ben Johnson’s first year. The defense led the NFL with 23 interceptions and 33 takeaways overall, but it finished with just 35 sacks. The only player in double digits was Montez Sweat with 10, and no one else had more than six.

Despite their sagging pass rush, the Bears did not make any major additions to their defensive line in the offseason. They waited until the sixth round of the NFL draft before addressing the position, taking defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg out of Georgia Tech.

Dexter, 24, said he heard the conversation about the team needing to add more to its group of defensive linemen.

“I feel like we got the guys, though,” he said. “We got the guys in the room to do it. … Each person in our room knows what they are capable of, so we don’t look at it as, like, a bad thing. We’re taking it on and we’re ready to get after it together.”

A year ago, the Bears were installing a new defensive scheme under coordinator Dennis Allen. That was a major part of their preparations for the season, and the coaching staff felt it affected the unit in other ways.

“We do have a high volume of things that we carry in the defense, and we focused so much on that that we lost sight of some of the fundamentals and techniques that it takes to function to do those things,” Allen said last month. “I don’t think we were as fundamentally sound defensively as we need to be.

“So how do we have to coach it better? Well, let’s minimize how much we’re focused on the scheme and let’s focus on not what we’re going to do, but how we’re going to do it. I think that’s how we’re going to improve.”

Allen and Johnson found a receptive audience in their defensive rooms.

“That’s one thing I can definitely appreciate about just being here is because it’s going to make me a better player,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said during organized team activities. “It’s going to make us all a better player.”

When it comes to their defensive line, the Bears also are hoping for improved health for a couple of key players. Defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo is coming back from an Achilles tendon injury, and Jarrett was slowed by a knee injury in his first season with the team. Shemar Turner, a second-round pick in last year’s draft, played in five games as a rookie before he was sidelined by a torn ACL.

Dexter, a second-round selection in the 2023 draft, had a career-high six sacks last year. As part of the emphasis on fundamentals, he has been focusing on getting into a good stance and improving at the start of the play.

“I’m looking at it as, it’s another year for me to grow as a player, to get better,” he said. “I’m here to help this team win. We didn’t have the end goal that we wanted last year so I’m here to help get to that goal.”

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