Bear Digest

Matt Eberflus calls Dallas CBs NFL's best but what about Jaylon Johnson?

New Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus called his new cornerbacks better than any in the league, although he had a pretty fair one in Chicago.
Gene Chamberlain|
Matt Eberflus talks with Caleb Williams during his final game as Bears coach at Detroit on Thanksgiving.
Matt Eberflus talks with Caleb Williams during his final game as Bears coach at Detroit on Thanksgiving. | David Reginek-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

How quickly they forget—or maybe not

Back in October Matt Eberflus might have held his own Bears cornerbacks in the highest regard, and definitely two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson.

Now, after his firing in Chicago and taking the job in Dallas as defensive coordinator, Eberflus has an extremely positive opinion of his new Dallas cornerbacks without even coaching a practice in the Big D as coordinator.

"I believe the guys we have here are the two best in the league," Eberflus told Dallas reporters, presumably referring to former Pro Bowl cornerbacks DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs. "They really are. They're top notch, top five for sure.

"Excited to work with those guys. They've got length, they have speed, they have really good coverage ability. It all starts with being able to play man coverage, I believe, being able to match guys up and be able to stay with your man and then be able to work our zones from there."

Then again, it was Johnson who reportedly confronted Eberflus in the Detroit locker room, shouting at him after they lost 23-20 when their coach let the clock run out with a timeout in his pocket. So maybe it's not surprising he regards his new cornerbacks as better.

His other Bears cornerback, Tyrique Stevenson, made the disastrous play that let the Hail Mary pass beat the Bears in Washington when they were seconds from being 5-2 on the year.

The Bears will face Eberflus' defense in the 2025 season, but in a way they'll compete against him first when the offseason personnel hunt begins. 

The Bears won't run the same defense now as when Eberflus was in charge but it's still a 4-3 alignment with similar concepts up front.

So the Bears and Cowboys are both basically looking for the same players.

Also, one of the Cowboys defensive linemen in free agency could be someone the Bears would consider, Osa Odighizuwa, their 6-foot-2, 280-pound three-technique defensive tackle who is an unrestricted free agent and ranked 30th in the NFL by Pro Football Focus overall among unrestricted free agents.

"Certainly Osa is a guy that we like a lot and he's a really good player for us and but we'll look at other guys too and we're in the middle of that process right now," Eberflus said at his first press conference since being hired in Dallas, the team that he served as linebackers coach before becoming Colts defensive coordinator in 2018.

Bears fans might have some skepticism when they hear about it but Eberflus hopes he can be a sounding board for new Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer based on his own experience in Chicago.

"That first couple meetings I had with him, I said I'm here for you," Eberflus told Cowboys reporters. "I want to really just do a good job of just bouncing ideas off me, experiences that I had, and just working together to be able to utilize me because I do have the experience of being a head coach for him and to make his job easier."

Word to the wise for Schottenheimer: Just don't take any advice on using timeouts.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.