Dwight Freeney, a Hall of Fame defensive end, gave Bears head coach Matt Eberflus a resounding endorsement. The former Colts standout knows Eberflus from his stint as Indianapolis’ defensive coordinator, and in a recent episode of the Under Center Podcast, Freeney stated why he admires Eberflus’ work.
“He did a great job in Indianapolis, for sure,” Freeney said. “Hence why he became a head coach, because he did such a great job of creating so much pressure, stopping the run, he’s a total defensive coordinator in my mind.”
In particular Freeney appreciates Eberflus’ ability to adapt his scheme or playcalling to help the team win. Eberflus doesn’t stick to one idea or one plan. He’s shown the ability to be flexible to meet whatever challenge the defense faces.
“He throws so many things at you, but he’s solid in every area,” Freeney said. “From a coverage standpoint, there are some coordinators who just blitz, blitz and blitz, and that’s all they do. You start picking up the blitz and they can’t do anything else. I don’t think that’s what he does. His strength is everywhere.”
That versatility was evident during the 2023 season, when Eberflus took over as defensive coordinator. The defensive line wasn’t producing enough pressure on its own, so Eberflus increased blitzes with guys like T.J. Edwards, Kyler Gordon, and Jaquan Brisker. He experimented with many looks, and it worked. When the squad struggled to get off the field on third downs, he chose to capitalize on the secondary’s strength by utilizing dime packages. Again, it improved the team’s performance. When the team finally signed a big-time edge rusher in Montez Sweat, things fell into place, Eberflus was able to return to his usual principles, and the defense excelled.
Overall the improvements were drastic.
Here are the defense’s numbers and league rankings in some key categories in 2022:
