Eric Washington May Have Tipped Off Bears Off-Season Plans

Matt Eberflus needed to learn from his mistakes if he was going to get his new coordinator hires right. Luke Getsy and Alan Williams had always been questionable choices. Williams was especially odd since he had such a rough showing in his first stint as defensive coordinator in Minnesota. This time around, the Chicago Bears head coach opted to change things up. He would maintain play calling duties, something he’s good at, while adding a new coordinator who could help instill the necessary discipline and effort to take things to the next level. That is how the Bears landed on Eric Washington.

The long-time defensive line coach has enjoyed a productive career since elevating to that job in Chicago back in 2008. Since then, he’s had a hand in developing some outstanding talents like Henry Melton, Kawann Short, and Ed Oliver, among several others. He’s known for being detailed, firm, and able to find common ground with all of his players. His comments about his expectations for the Bears defense moving forward were interesting. It included a not-so-subtle clue about the team’s plans for this spring.

“We’re going to be a team that generates pressure with our front four. We’re going to build the best pass rush in football that happens to be an area – fortunately an area that I’ve had tremendous success with – and we have the personnel to get that done.”

The Bears may lean in what Eric Washington does best.

Defensive line is his calling card. It would make sense to load up that area of the roster. Then again, teams who run a 4-3 alignment should be doing this anyway. The core philosophy of that system is getting pressure on the quarterback with only the four defensive linemen. If you can do that, it leaves seven other defenders in coverage to help force turnovers. Chicago took a big step in the right direction when they added Montez Sweat to their defensive front last October. He, Gervon Dexter, and DeMarcus Walker seem like a solid trio.

However, the best 4-3 defenses often have four. That is why it certainly sounds like Eric Washington believes the Bears will be aggressive in adding to that pass rush over the next two months. Free agency figures to have quite a few notable options like Danielle Hunter, Josh Allen, Brian Burns, Chris Jones, Jonathan Greenard, Bryce Huff, and Christian Wilkins. The NFL draft is also a strong possibility, with Dallas Turner and Jared Verse looking like possible options for that 9th overall pick.

Any one of those names would instantly upgrade the Bears’ pass rush. Putting them in Washington’s hands could make things electric pretty fast.