Briggs, Tillman End of the Long Goodbye to Lovie's Defense

It’s the end of a defensive era in Chicago Bears football. Lovie Smith’s dominant Cover-2 defense has found its final resting place. Yes, it feels like it’s been gone a while, but it wasn't. The last two seasons the defense was in hospice, and we were forced to watch the long goodbye.

When the Bears fired Smith following the 2012 season, left behind were Lance Briggs, Charles Tillman and Smith’s playbook. When the team hired Mel Tucker as defensive coordinator, the job came with that playbook, and he was required to use it. And Tucker did just that. What Tucker was left with was the remains of an ancient ruin.

News that the Bears will not bring Briggs back and are likely to see Tillman elsewhere in 2015 is symbolic of the defensive overhaul needed at Halas Hall. Tillman and Briggs were great Bears. Together with Brian Urlacher they led a defense that ranked in the top five in the league three times and a Super Bowl birth with Rex Grossman under center. But with age and injuries comes ineffectiveness.

New defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio is bringing along with him a 3-4 defense. It’s not a system Briggs and Tillman can excel in and by saying goodbye to the old guard; the Bears can usher in a new era.

The 3-4 will open up a new well of options for obtaining a pass rush. No longer will the front office be tied to hand-on-ground defensive ends. Now they can look at the smaller, faster outside linebackers that fit in a 3-4. It’s a defense that is predicated on spreading the pressure around by using a variety of blitz packages.

It will be a shame to see Briggs and Tillman not patrolling the sidelines for the first time in 12 years. And it’s an even bigger shame that they along with Urlacher will never wear a Bears Super Bowl ring. However, Lovie’s era in Chicago is one to be respected. He brought back a long hibernated defensive power house that made the league take notice. His era wasn’t always pretty and there’s a whiff of “what could have been”, but ultimately he did a fine job.

Now it’s time for a rebuild. A new defensive scheme is coming; a new front office is calling the shots and word that the team is shopping Brandon Marshall shows Pace and company are looking for a cultural shift as well. And after the last two seasons, that is something that should relieve Bears fans.