Jarrett on Chicago’s new look: “The results will show for itself”

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · Friday, August 15 2025

CHICAGO - Defensive lineman Grady Jarrett is everything that a team looks for in a defender - energetic, passionate, and good at causing disruption in the backfield.

He brings a presence to this defense that Chicago lacked last season, although Jarrett sees the defense’s performance last season as “almost irrelevant” since there are so many new people in the building.

“We’ve been doing our best since day once since I got here to be able to improve from whatever it was last year. I think it’s almost irrelevant (at) this point (because) it’s a new year,” Jarrett said. “New people in the building and I think it’s not even something that we spoke about at all and we really just focused on going forward and putting our best foot forward everyday and I think we believe highly in what we’ve been doing and I think the results will show for itself.”

The defense is completely different from last season in regard to players and coaches. The Bears have a new defensive coordinator in Dennis Allen, other new defensive coaches and new players on the defense including Jarrett. So, Chicago’s defense should not be anything like that season. This is especially true when considering how Allen calls a defense.

One focus for Allen in training camp has been exploring different packages and fronts, including a five-man front, something that Jarrett thinks could cause opposing offenses a lot of problems.

“We got many different fronts and I think the flexibility of having many different fronts keep the offense on their toes … (Whether) it’s a four down, five down, whatever it may be, if we got to go two down with me and Dex on the inside holding it down from tackle to tackle, we’ll make it happen. So, whatever coach calls, we going to be able to execute at the highest level,” Jarrett said. “I think creating single matchups across the front gives us the opportunity to just go win mono e mono (and) just (lining) up and letting the offensive linemen tee off on you in certain double teams. So, the five down look definitely presents some challenges for offense as a nice switch up from the things we do on a basic (level).”

While there are a lot of changes, Chicago also has numerous players on defense returning, including defensive lineman Andrew Billings, who was a crucial part of the run defense prior to his season-ending injury.

At over 310 pounds, Billings is probably one of the bigger players on this defense, and the combination of his size and physicality is something Jarrett believes will help the defense overall.

“He brings size, experience, somebody who plays with extremely good effort as a big man. He been doing it for a long time in this league, very physical player and I’m honored to be able to play (next) to him and get to be able to share the field with him,” Jarrett said. “So, he’s a really big part of our defense. Whether it’s every down or certain packages, he’s somebody that’s going to be felt everyday.”

Last season, there were high expectations for defensive lineman Gervon Dexter to take a big jump in his sophomore season. While the beginning of the season started off promising, he did not do much once the Bears went on their losing streak.

Being able to learn from Jarrett is an aspect that could help Dexter make that big leap this season.

“The guy, he’s disruptive in the run game. He’s something to deal with in the pass game. He just continue to get better and this effort that he playing with lately, it’s been amazing. You can see him running all the way across the field and I can’t wait to see him cut it loose on game day,” Jarrett said. “So, it’s just a young player continuing to get better and he at that year three mark when you can make a real big jump and I’m definitely anticipating it for him and I’m going to do everything I can in my power to help him continue to be better. But, he ain’t going to need much of a push because he’s somebody who got the high standard set for himself. You can see it daily with the extra work that he put in on the field, in the meeting room and I couldn’t have a better running mate on the inside right now. So, I’m super excited to be playing with him.”