People may or may not want to address it, but there will be Chuck Pagano Vic Fangio comparisons before the end of the 2019 season. If there aren’t already. That much is inevitable. Fangio set a standard in Chicago that hasn’t been seen in a long time. He left behind one of the better legacies a defensive coordinator has ever had in this town.
That’s a lot for Pagano to live up to. The team seems confident he can do that. He and head coach Matt Nagy hit it off from the start. Pagano will have the same autonomy as Fangio did and likely the same talent as well. His opportunity to make a similar statement is there. People just aren’t sure how much he’ll do with it.
In these cases, it’s often enlightening to measure the two men against each other in terms of past accomplishments. That could prove difficult for Pagano and Fangio, but there is a creative way to look at how they’ve faired over the years.
Chuck Pagano Vic Fangio comparisons favor the former where it counts
Fans are always thinking about whether or not a team is getting better or worse from year to year. The Bears had the #1 defense in football last year but it only got them to the wild card round of the playoffs. So as great as it was, it wasn’t great enough. Is there any way for it to get better under Pagano with Fangio now gone?
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
This is somewhat difficult to answer since Pagano only has one year coordinating a defense on his record while Fangio has 19. However, there may still be a way to gauge them against each other. That being in how they’ve faired against elite quarterbacks. To do this we’d have Fangio’s time as a coordinator dating back to 1995 while we would have Pagano’s time both as a coordinator and a secondary coach.
Two things to make clear. Secondary coach counts in this because they more than any other position group help determine how effective a quarterback is during a game. Also, Pagano’s time as head coach will not be included in the data collection because he did not directly oversee the defense at any point during his tenure there.
With that out of the way, here are the results:
Fangio vs. elite QBs (61 games)
- 1362 completions
- 2099 attempts
- 16,482 yards
- 117 touchdowns
- 47 interceptions
- 98.13 passer rating
Pagano vs. elite QBs (34 games)
- 664 completions
- 1087 attempts
- 7,905 yards
- 45 touchdowns
- 34 interceptions
- 84.06 passer rating
For those curious, the quarterbacks involved in both numbers crunches is fairly extensive. It includes Steve Young, Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson, and Andrew Luck. All quarterbacks who are in the Hall of Fame, likely soon will be, and also put up extensive numbers every year.
Some might argue that the numbers aren’t fair because Pagano spent the majority of his time in Baltimore where he had great talent. Except that’s not true. He actually spent more time overall in Cleveland and Oakland from 2001 to 2006 when both teams were not good for the most part.
Even then his numbers are still fairly stronger.
It was even clear when the two went head to head for the first and only time in 2011. Fangio had the #2 defense in San Francisco. Pagano had the #3 in Baltimore. The Ravens dominated 16-6, aided by eight sacks and a huge interception in the end zone. Between Alex Smith and Joe Flacco, between whom most would consider the former slightly superior? Smith had a passer rating of 61.1. Flacco a 100.1.
This is in no way to disparage what Fangio has done in Chicago. His rebuilding of the Bears defense was master class and should be lauded long after he’s gone. With that said, there’s plenty of evidence to back up the notion that Pagano will take that work he did to an even higher level moving forward.
