Smith says he will be more involved in defense in 2009

Bob Babich will continue to coordinate the Bears' defense. He just won't be making as many of the game-day decisions as he did the past two seasons.

Some, if not all, of those duties, specifically playcalling, will be taken over by head coach Lovie Smith, who will be more involved than ever with the defense.

"I have been involved a little bit (with defensive playcalling)," Smith said. "My involvement will be a lot more now. I think this is what will help us get back to where we need to be."

The Bears' defense has plummeted in the past two years, since Babich took over for Ron Rivera, who was fired even though his defenses finished in the top five in the league in 2005 and '06. Under Babich, the Bears were 28th in yards allowed in 2007 and 21st in '08.

While Babich will lose some of his authority in terms of playcalling, he will take on the added responsibility of coaching the linebackers, a role he performed in his first two years on Smith's staff before he was promoted to replace Rivera.

"I'm going to be more involved with the playcalling and everything else (on defense)," Smith said. "There are very few situations where one guy calls every play. Will I be more in the lead position in that role? Yes, I will."

Smith disagreed that the firings of defensive-backs coach Steven Wilks, linebackers coach Lloyd Lee and defensive-line coach Brick Haley cast them as scapegoats for a defense that failed to play up to expectations under his and Babich's guidance.

By taking over some of Babich's duties and accepting some of the responsibility for the 2008 season himself, Smith spread the blame around more evenly.

"Looking at the entire staff, I wasn't happy with what we did," Smith said. "I evaluate our group each year and, after my evaluation, I thought these changes were necessary.

"Getting rid of Bob Babich was not a part of that. Bob's duties have changed like all of the guys' duties have changed. No one is in the same position that they were defensively last year, so there weren't any scapegoats.

"The guys I thought that didn't need to be here anymore, we needed to go a different direction from, we did that. The ones that stayed, I think these guys all bring something to the table."

Smith accepted some of the blame for the disappointing performance of the defense this season, but he will assume more responsibility and take a more active role in the day-to-day workings on that side of the ball next season at the expense of Babich.

"I had involvement early on, when we were one of the best defenses in the league, and I've had a lot of involvement the past couple years when we haven't," Smith said.

"With Bob taking on the linebacker duties, that doesn't necessarily free him up, but with additional duties, I will be helping him coordinate the defense."

The Bears' staff is now complete, but Smith indicated that further change on the defensive side of the ball would be made this off-season.

"I'm looking forward to tweaking the scheme a little bit," he said. "We have tweaked our coaching staff a little bit, and I'm looking forward to tweaking the personnel a little bit, also."

But those changes aren't expected to be drastic, and the Bears will continue to play a lot of Cover-2 defense in passing situations.

"We're not changing our scheme," Smith said. "I believe fully in the scheme we are running.

"When I say 'tweak,' you try to improve some of the things you have done, and that's what we'll do. We're going to do it better, and that's the way we're going to make our stand back up to the top."

New defensive line coach/assistant head coach Rod Marinelli also is expected to contribute significantly to next season's defense.

Marinelli is one of Smith's closest friends, the two having worked together on Tony Dungy's staff in Tampa for five years from 1996-2000.

The newest and final addition to the Bears' staff, defensive-backs coach Jon Hoke, also is an old acquaintance of Smith's. They met when Smith was a linebackers coach with the Bucs and Hoke was defensive coordinator at Florida.

Smith's staff has been criticized for its lack of NFL experience, but he denied that that was a factor in the recent firings and hirings.

"The guys we're bringing in - Jon Hoke and Rod Marinelli - they're just good football coaches," Smith said. "That's what we're trying to do. When you don't like exactly where you are, you need to do something to change things up, and that's what we've done."

But none of the three departed coaches had any NFL experience before being hired by Smith, while Marinelli and Hoke have coached in the NFL for 13 years and seven years, respectively.

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