Gervon Dexter Sr. put maximum effort into his offseason development. The third-year pro gained significant amounts of lean muscle mass to prepare for more work as a nose tackle. He used the offseason program to improve his technique and, as Bears players would leave Halas Hall, Dexter would text position coach Jeremy Garrett looking for more instruction.

Garrett’s new to the Bears, joining the storied franchise as part of Ben Johnson’s staff. The tips and technical improvements have helped, which inspired confidence in his new coach.

“JG has done a great job at helping me get there in our short time together so far,” Dexter said in a press conference last week. “So, it’s been cool.”

Dexter was pressed on how Garrett has helped him. He had examples at the ready.

“It is a funny story. My coach, he asked me one time when we first got here, ‘G what are you looking at when you are getting off the ball or what are you looking at when you are ready to strike?’” Dexter said. “And I told him some dumb answer, I told him like, ‘I’m looking at the hips or ankles of the offensive lineman.’ He looked at me funny. He was like, ‘Just key the tip of the pad.’ And that’s been more than helpful to me so far. It’s been perfect.”

Streamlining focus has helped Dexter play faster and maximize his physical gifts. Seeing improvement on the practice field didn’t make the Florida product feel satisfied.

“He watches film and asks for more,” Garrett said a few weeks back. “He wants to meet with me extra. He’s putting in the work. This summer, he was asking, ‘Coach, what do I need to do?’ He has been, I wouldn’t say this was a surprise, because I know he’s talented – I remember seeing him at Florida and some last year – but he’s growing and developing so well because he has the right mentality.”

Garrett could see that Dexter was missing some clues on how to find out what an offensive line might be doing. He also emphasized that the play doesn’t begin with the snap. It starts earlier than that, which helped reframe Dexter’s mentality in a positive way.

“He noticed that obviously my eyes weren’t in the right place and I think one of the things that he told me was the start of the play,” Dexter said. “That’s the stance, getting down and getting ready to play is probably the biggest thing. If you don’t have a good stance, you probably won’t have a good get off, and nine times out of 10, you won’t have a good play. So, just the start of the play, he’s helped me fix the start and that’s been pretty good for me.”

The Bears will benefit from having Dexter at his best. We’ve seen flashes of that, including a stretch with four sacks and eight quarterback hits over five games to start last season. He did most of that work as a pure three technique, a spot Grady Jarrett largely occupies. Dexter will play on the nose a good amount this season – hence the bulk-up – and be a keystone in the run game. Dexter will be central in every defensive effort and he knows it. That’s why he worked so hard this offseason, knowing he must level up for the defense to reach vast potential. Those around Dexter believe he’s primed for a breakout year because of the extra work put in and Garrett’s assistance. Now it’s a matter of executing it to start the regular season and establish the Bears’ defense and what it stands for.

“Being a more physical team, that’s who we want to be,” Dexter said. “It’s more than just being a more physical team, but also being the most prepared team and all of those situations that we go over and stuff like that. Just knowing that we’ll be prepared when it’s our time to go out there.”

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