From former Bears defensive coordinators Greg Blache and Vic Fangio to current linebackers coach Ted Monachino, football coaches have bristled at our obsession with sacks as a defining statistic.
There’s more to defensive football than sacks, they insist. And the counter-argument is always the same: When NFL teams stop paying for sacks, we’ll stop using them as a measurement of success for pass rushers.
So even though outside linebacker Leonard Floyd did other things that made him valuable to the Bears’ defense, his three sacks last season opposite Khalil Mack — only one in the final 15 games — still left a sizable void in a top-10 defense that lost its bite.