Tashaun Gipson, Jaylon Johnson Take Starting Position Battles

The Bears head into the regular season with three inexperienced players manning right cornerback and a pass rusher who has missed chunks of training camp.

None of it seems to be bothering GM Ryan Pace at the moment.

The team on Monday released its first depth chart and the apparent winner in the right cornerback competition is rookie Jaylon Johnson, although it is possible he'd play only on passing downs early in the season with Buster Skrine playing right cornerback in the base 3-4 defense.

Also, the depth chart revealed veteran Tashaun Gipson has prevailed over Deon Bush in the battle for one of the starting safety spots.

Second-year player Duke Shelley and rookie Kindle Vildor are listed on the depth chart as backups behind Johnson at right cornerback, and so far speculation the Bears might sign their old right cornerback, Prince Amukamara, has been unfounded.

"The depth at corner, first off obviously we know what we have in (Kyle) Fuller, and then Buster is a proven player in this league, especially in the nickel spot," Pace said Monday during his traditional press conference to open the regular season. "Both those guys had excellent training camps."

Skrine played both in the slot and at right cornerback in camp and the Bears cut Kevin Toliver II. So they have confidence in Johnson eventually playing right cornerback. They also saw Vildor and Shelley as possible right corners.

"It was really cool to see the two young draft picks come in and play the way they played. They played really well, with Vildor and Jaylon Johnson. It's neat to see where they're at. I think both those guys, especially with no offseason, just their football IQ, their professionalism, they made plays throughout camp. I think both those guys gained the confidence of their teammates around them. We also have some flexibility at our safety position; a lot of those safeties can play nickel for us, so that gives us some versatility. I think versatility is going to be big this year in the season that we're heading into."

The outside linebacker situation regarding Robert Quinn is concerning because he hasn't practiced much due to what the team has called a "personal" situation or issue. Apparently he will be playing Sunday, even after the Bears have reportedly signed former Raiders and Saints pass rusher Mario Edwards.

"In regards to Robert Quinn, he's such a vet," Pace said. "Obviously he's one of our more experienced players. The best thing he does is get after the quarterback and rush the passer so it's not like you know there's a ton of Xs and Os necessarily with some of that—just get off the ball and get the corner. But we feel good about where he is from knowing our defense even if he has had a little bit of a short training camp."

Pace subscribes to the theory that a strong pass rush can make the secondary stronger, and this held true in 2018 for the defense. It explains the need for Edwards as a third edge to rotate in with pass-rush experience.

"I think it all starts with affecting the quarterback," Pace said. "You know hitting the quarterback, getting after the quarterback, affecting his timing. It makes your whole defense better.

"You know it's a passing league, I think if you hit the quarterback your corners are better, your safeties are better and it's just such a value position. It's a hard position to find, you've usually got to draft it really high or you've got to pay in free agency and it's a really valued position."

The idea in crafting the defense was to find cornerbacks who could make plays on the ball when the throw is affected by the rush. This could explain the apparent lack of interest the Bears have in bringing Prince Amukamara back into the fold after he started three seasons. He was cut by the Raiders during roster cutdowns after he'd been cut by the Bears last spring, but Amukamara never was known for being able to make plays on the ball. He had no interceptions in two of his three Bears seasons.

"I think when you take the pass rush that we have, not just with the two outside linebackers but our interior pass rush too, and when you couple that with guys who have ball skills in the secondary so you know our safeties, our corners including the rookies, all those guys have ball skills," Pace said. "So if you're hitting the quarterback those balls are going to get thrown up and I think, we used to always talk, I remember (Saints) coach (Sean) Payton used to always say this, what's the risk of throwing at this corner because if they don't have ball skills what's really the risk? It's going to be a completion, incompletion or pass interference?

"And we've loaded up the secondary with guys that have ball skills. With a defense that can generate that kind of pass rush that can equate to a lot of turnovers."

On offense, Germain Ifedi is the starter over Rashaad Coward, although this was a battle which never seemed to be in doubt as Ifedi took most of the snaps throughout camp with the first team.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven