Bear Down, Nerd Up: Gervon Dexter is spearheading an elite defense

The Chicago Bears defense certainly looks like the elite unit everybody thought it could be in 2024. The Bears created three more turnovers on Sunday in a win over the Carolina Panthers.

Yes, it was a win over a bad Panthers team. But good teams take advantage of bad opponents, and that’s what the Bears did on Sunday.

The Bears are once again near the top of the NFL leaderboard in takeaways, just as they were in the second half of last season. This group looks like the real deal on all three levels. On the defensive line, it was primarily the tackles – not the edge rushers – who found their way to the quarterback on Sunday.

Here’s a look at the stats, numbers and advanced metrics that made this week unique for the Bears. All rankings are prior to Monday night’s results.

Turnover machines

With three more takeaways on Sunday, the Bears defense has now created 11 takeaways this season. That ranks third in the NFL behind division rivals Green Bay (with 14) and Minnesota (13). Those three NFC North rivals are the only teams with double-digit takeaways through five games. The Bears have created multiple takeaways in four of their five games this season.

Those 11 takeaways have led to 40 points off turnovers, including 16 points during Sunday’s game.

After a mistake-free day on offense, the Bears rank tied for third in turnover margin at plus-five. The offense has given the ball away six times in five games. Green Bay and Buffalo are tied atop that leaderboard at plus-seven.

According to Next Gen Stats’ expected points added metric, the Bears are the third-best defense overall on a per-play basis and No. 1 against the pass. The Bears’ minus 0.24 EPA per play ranks third behind only Minnesota and Denver. The Bears defense is at minus 0.39 EPA per play against the pass.

The Bears have allowed only two passing touchdowns all season (tied for second behind New Orleans, who has allowed only one, pending Monday’s game).

Safety Kevin Byard caught his first interception as a member of the Bears. It was his 29th career interception. Byard is tied with Atlanta’s Justin Simmons and Miami’s Xavien Howard for the most interceptions since the start of the 2017 NFL season, per the Bears.

Dexter’s laboratory

Bears defensive tackle Gervon Dexter had a career-high four quarterback hits on Sunday. That brought his season total to 10. The 2023 second-round draft pick had 12 QB hits all of last season. Dexter also added one sack, which brought his season total to four.

Through five games, Dexter’s four sacks ranks second in the NFL among defensive tackles. Only the New York Giants’ Dexter Lawrence has more with six (following a three-sack game Sunday).

Dexter became the first Bears interior defensive lineman with four sacks in the team’s first five games since Nick Williams in 2019.

Per Next Gen Stats, Montez Sweat was actually the closest Bears pass rusher to the quarterback on average, despite not recording a single tackle or QB hit. Sweat was 3.83 yards away from the QB at the time of throw on average. League average is 4.57 yards. Sweat created one QB pressure in the game. Sweat is often denting the pocket, even if he’s not the one finishing sacks right now.

At 4.02 yards on average from the QB, Dexter was also better than the league average on Sunday. Dexter created five pressures on his 22 pass rushes. His 22.7% pressure rate was third-highest among qualified pass rushers in Week 5. Only Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson and Seattle’s Jarran Reed had better rates in Week 5.

Best game yet

Quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 304 yards and two touchdowns on 20-for-29 passing. His 126.2 passer rating was the highest for a Bears rookie quarterback since at least the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, according to the team.

The previous high was a 121.1 passer rating from rookie Jim McMahon during a Dec. 26, 1982, win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Per ESPN’s total quarterback rating metric, which takes many more variables into account than traditional QB rating, Williams was the best quarterback in the NFL in Week 5 (pending Monday night’s game). His 83.8 QBR was a point and a half ahead of Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield and four points above Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins. It was easily the best QBR of Williams’ five games so far.

With three wins at home to start the year, Williams became the first rookie QB to win his first three home starts since Tua Tagovailoa in 2020, per the Bears.

Wide open targets

The Bears receivers were getting open easily on Sunday. Williams’ targets averaged 4.2 yards of separation, which ranked third-most across the NFL in Week 5, according to Next Gen Stats. Only Denver’s Bo Nix and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson had more open targets, on average.

On the season, Williams’ targets average 3.7 yards of separation. That ranks 13th among 32 qualified quarterbacks. Williams generally hasn’t had to fit the ball into tight windows. Only 10.6% of his passes this season have qualified as “tight windows” by Next Gen Stats. That’s third fewest among 32 qualified QBs, behind only Baltimore’s Jackson and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.

For comparison, San Francisco’s Brock Purdy and Dallas’ Dak Prescott are both throwing into tight windows more than 24% of the time.