The NFC North has long been known as the NFL’s most bruising, old-school division, and it does trend that way when winter hits, but battles between the Bears and their rivals have increasingly gone to the air.
The Bears don’t look ready for that at the moment.
Their secondary, once a roster strength, is dicey as they head into what should be a wide-open division race. The Lions and Packers have prolific quarterbacks in Jared Goff and Jordan Love, respectively, and the Vikings are trying to relaunch two-time Pro Bowl selection Kyler Murray.
Each of those teams is stacked with pass catchers, and that’s where concerns rise for the Bears.
They still have an elite shutdown cornerback in Jaylon Johnson, assuming he truly is back to normal after a major injury derailed him last season, but that’s not enough. He negates one threat, theoretically, and the North teams bring much more to the table than that.
The Bears’ secondary already had uncertainty as they started over at safety and made no big moves at cornerback. Then their key offseason pickup, Super Bowl champion safety Coby Bryant, went down with a potentially season-ending knee injury.
That leaves a lot of responsibility on rookie Dillion Thieneman.
Ever-unpredictable cornerback Tyrique Stevenson has been out with a minor injury and missed practice again Wednesday. He usually has had to fight off Terell Smith to keep his starting spot, but Smith is out, too.
And then there’s the odd and maddening saga of nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon, who in one year has gone from one of the surest things on the roster to a total question mark. He missed 14 games last season because of three separate injuries, then suffered another one in the offseason and has yet to practice.
Asking about it doesn’t go over well at Halas Hall.
Bears coach Ben Johnson was prodded for an update Saturday and said only, “Unknown.” Pressed again a couple days later for even the most general information about what’s going on, he gave four consecutive short answers.
That series ended with a basic inquiry of what exactly Gordon does every day, to which Johnson replied, “He’s rehabbing,” then looked for the next question.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was “hopeful” Wednesday that Gordon would be back soon, but regarding the chances of him playing in the season opener against the Panthers, he said, “That’s something I can’t put a lot of thought into right now.”
Allen will have his hands full matching up with North offenses even at full strength:
– The Packers have wide receivers Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, each of whom did damage against the Bears last season, plus ascending tight end Tucker Kraft.
– The Lions have the most firepower with two 1,000-yard wide receivers in Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, former Pro Bowl tight end Sam LaPorta and running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who was third at his position last season with 77 catches.
– It’s easy to brush aside the Vikings after a down season, but coach Kevin O’Connell has made it work with quarterbacks far less talented than Murray. And he’ll be throwing to overwhelming wide receiver Justin Jefferson, two of the best complementary receivers in Jordan Addison and Jauan Jennings and two-time Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson.
Who’s going to cover all those guys?
The Bears will be in trouble if they can’t answer that.
Even while going 11-6 and winning the North comfortably last season, they went 2-4 in the division and allowed an average of 223.5 yards passing and a 103 passer rating in those games.
Jaylon Johnson said a few weeks ago the notion of trying to win 40-35 every week is “unacceptable.” It’s probably impossible.
There aren’t obvious solutions to this problem, but it’s on Allen to unearth them. Otherwise, another season of shaky defense could undermine any progress the Bears make offensively.