As ChiFan13 brought you in today's Den, Lance Briggs thinks so. Briggs cites the change in coaching scheme this year as a reason he thinks the Bears can be better than 2005.
"I don’t want to revert back to that form," said the four-time Pro Bowler. "I want to revert to a better form. I think that’s what we all want. We’re all aiming toward something better.
"That’s what we’re working on. You hear coaches out here [at practice] yelling at everybody every play. That’s what we need. We’ve got to be yelled at. We have to put our grind in if we want to be successful."
How much of that yelling and motivating is being done by Lovie Smith is anyone's guess. But we constantly hear positive things from the coaching and player ranks that Rod Marinelli is shaking things up.
We know that our offense should be better, and our special teams will consistantly be one of the best in the NFL, but can our defense really make that big of a jump?
The Bears made significant changes to their defensive coaching staff this offseason. They added two veteran assistants in Rod Marinelli (line) and Jon Hoke (secondary), moved Bob Babich into the role he once occupied as linebackers coach and announced that head coach Lovie Smith will assume play-calling duties.
Given those upgrades, Briggs feels that the pressure to perform is squarely on the players’ shoulders.
"That’s why they pay us the big bucks," he said. "We might have had some down years, but they pay us big bucks because they believe in us, and we’ve got to show up this year."
Sounds good to me... it's time to put your money where your mouth is. A team needs to be strong in all 3 phases of the game to be successful, to be contenders. This year, our defense may just be the weakest link.