Earlier this offseason, I examined Chicago’s pass rush, and this week I want to shift gears to focus on the other part of pass defense: coverage. We looked at CB yesterday, and today we’ll focus on linebackers before finishing tomorrow with a look at the safeties.

Side note: If you read yesterday’s article, this one will follow the exact same format and have identical table setup, so hopefully the familiarity makes digesting all of the data a little easier. 

Linebackers

Let’s start with a basic look at coverage stats for Chicago’s LB last year. There were 66 LB with 250+ coverage snaps, or 2.1 per team, which makes a convenient threshold for starting players. Both Chicago starting LB – Tremaine Edmunds and TJ Edwards – qualified, and I decided to include Jack Sanborn as well even though he missed the cutoff with only 192 coverage snaps. The table below shows how well all three players performed in a variety of coverage metrics compared to their peers. A few quick notes:

• Ranks compared to the 66 LB in the sample are given in parentheses, and for a little context, 33rd would be exactly in the middle.
• Those in the top 25% (17th or better) are highlighted in green.
• Those in the bottom 25% (50th or worse) are highlighted in red.
• All data for this article is from Pro Football Focus (PFF).

Side note: sorry if there are formatting issues with the table. You can view it in full by clicking on it. 

A few thoughts:

• That’s a lot of red, which is less than ideal. It appears that, overall, Chicago’s linebackers struggled in coverage in 2023.
  • It is worth noting, however, that it’s difficult to assign coverage responsibilities. This is especially true for linebackers and safeties who are also heavily involved in run defense, and it may not always be super clear who they’re supposed to be covering.
  • Thus all of these conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt, but I think there still are some lessons to be learned, including about how players are utilized and where they struggle vs. excel.
• The coverage difficulties are especially disappointing for Tremaine Edmunds, who was paid a top of the market deal last offseason primarily for his ability to defend in space.
  • As I pointed out when the Bears signed him, Edmunds was great in coverage in 2022 but struggled quite a bit for 4 years prior to that, and unfortunately right now that 2022 season looks like an aberration for Edmunds. It will be up to him to prove that wrong in 2024 and beyond.
• TJ Edwards was targeted frequently, but held up reasonably well when targeted, as evidenced by his average yards/target mark.
  • This was a bit of a dip from past years, as Edwards allowed only 6.2 yards/target from 2021-22 in Philadelphia.
• Jack Sanborn struggled tremendously in coverage, being targeted both frequently and effectively.
  • This is admittedly a small sample size, though it mirrors what happened in 2022 (6.9 snaps/target, 82% catch rate, 8.6 yards/target).
  • Sanborn is not a great athlete by NFL LB standards, as he posted a 4.73 40 yard dash prior to the draft, and that leaves him little to no margin for error when he’s trying to cover faster, more athletic players in space.
  • Overall, Sanborn seems like an ideal top backup LB, which is his current role. He’s smart and pretty solid against the run, and being a part-time/reserve player keeps his weaknesses from being too exposed like they would be in an every-down starting role.
• One caveat that is important to mention here: coverage is only part of the picture when it comes to pass defense. Pass rush is also an important part of the equation. Chicago’s pass rush was awful last year, which likely made life more difficult on the linebackers who had to hold up for longer in coverage.
  • However, it also gives us a reasonable baseline for what conditions should be like in 2024, because the pass rush doesn’t appear to have improved this offseason.

Man/Zone Split

Let’s dive in a little deeper now and look at how frequently and effectively each LB performed in man and zone coverage. The table below shows the same stats as the 1st one above, but for both man and zone, with an additional stat showing what % of their overall coverage snaps were played in each coverage. Like in the table above, ranks compared to the 66 LBs with 250+ coverage snaps are shown in parentheses, with 33rd being average, top 25% highlighted in green, and bottom 25% highlighted in red.

A few thoughts:

• Like we saw with the CBs, the Bears defense doesn’t utilize man coverage very often, but instead relies heavily on zone.
• We see opposite trends here for Tremaine Edmunds and TJ Edwards.
  • Edmunds was better in man coverage and struggled more in zone, which makes sense given his profile as a LB with immense physical gifts but questionable instincts. With a 4.54 40 yard dash and outstanding overall athleticism, Edmunds can run with RBs and TEs in man coverage.
  • Edwards, on the other hand, lacks the speed to run with players in man coverage (4.87 40 yard dash), but is a highly instinctual player who can get to the spot effectively in zone by making quick decisions.
• Jack Sanborn, meanwhile, seemed to struggle fairly equally in both man and zone. He does a good job of limiting to short catches in both, but gets targeted frequently and gives up too many yards after the catch, likely because of his limited athleticism.
• One thing I found interesting is that all three players saw their average catch in man coverage be made behind the line of scrimmage. That must be a schematic thing, that most of the time they play man they end up covering a running back who drops into the flat for a check down.

Lessons Learned

Let’s wrap up today with some main takeaways:

• Tremaine Edmunds needs to perform like the star coverage player he was paid to be. He’s solid in man but struggled in zone in 2023.
• TJ Edwards utilizes outstanding instincts to be a capable zone defender, but athletic limitations prevent him from excelling in man.
• Jack Sanborn’s coverage struggles leave him ideally suited to be a part-time player in base packages, which is the role he currently serves on Chicago’s roster. If he cannot improve in coverage, it is possible a more athletic player like Noah Sewell could develop enough to bump him down the depth chart.