With the calendar officially having turned to July, we are just weeks away from the Chicago Bears reporting to Halas Hall for training camp. Chicago’s defense will have its third defensive coordinator in four seasons, with Sean Desai set to take the reigns. Desai, who’s mainly been a secondary coach his entire career, is set to have veterans Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson manning the backend of the defense.
With 2021 marking the first time since 2018 that Jackson will have an opportunity to play alongside the same safety for the second consecutive season, many wonder what Gipson and Jackson will accomplish in 2021.
Last season, both safeties combined for 148 tackles and two interceptions in what many considered to be a less aggressive defensive scheme.
“It’s huge, it’s huge, I haven’t played with a safety two years in a row since Adrian Amos,” Jackson said via the Bears official YouTube page. “So to come back and have that chemistry, it’s huge, especially back there. I’m in his head, he’s in my head and the type of athlete that Gip he brings a lot of stuff we can use, me and him together.”
Desai’s scheme will allow both Gipson and Jackson to take a more aggressive approach to the game, giving each player the opportunity to fly around and make plays at will. Expect to see a variety of different defensive coverages and disguises, making life more difficult for opposing quarterbacks.
“The good thing about our teaching philosophies is that we try and make sure guys know multiple spots,” Desai said via the Bears official Youtube page. “That helps us on gameday with the depth and that’s been a philosophy of mine and our defensive staff since the beginning. Those two guys’ relationship is going to grow. For us, that’s what’s going to help us in the backend, when Gip and Bojack are back there and they’re communicating and handling all the coverage assignments, that helps because now they know how each other play.”
Under Desai, it’s fair to expect Chicago to have one of the top safety tandems in the NFL, something that will be needed, especially since Chicago moved on from cornerback Kyle Fuller this offseason, leaving a void in the secondary that will need to be filled by Jackson and Gipson.