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Coby Bryant Injury Disaster Adds to Pressure Already on Bears Offense

Whether the Bears replace their injured safety with a free agent or not, making up for his absence will ultimately fall on their potent offense.
Gene Chamberlain|
Elijah Hicks has been a solid backup player in the past and produced if he had to start. It's possible the Bears could call on him again.
Elijah Hicks has been a solid backup player in the past and produced if he had to start. It's possible the Bears could call on him again. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears


The Bears losing Coby Bryant well into October is one of the worst things that could happen to their defense.

It's not the end of their playoff chances this year but is a terrible blow because he was their centerpiece veteran speed addition to a secondary remade to suit coordinator Dennis Allen's tastes. It's also particularly damaging because being out 8-10 weeks, as ESPN's Adam Schefter reported, means Bryant will not arrive as a well-functioning cog in their defense the way they envisioned with his signing.

Arriving in playing shape is tough enough, and playing in a secondary he hasn't played in will be difficult. If he's suddenly thrust into the spot in October, it will be tough. Then there is the concern with whether he'll actually be 100% or in some other state, like Jaylon Johnson was last year after surgery. At least in this case Bryant won't need surgery, according to Schefter.

Missing so much time is one thing but it's extremely tough missing it when you're the new player to the team, when you are the veteran who is supposed to lead around rookie Dillon Thieneman as he breaks in, and when the secondary normally faces problems because it gets exposed by the lack of a pass rush.

There are the magic words: pass rush. If they had one, they could easily cover for Bryant with backup safety Elijah Hicks handling the pass coverage job until Bryant's return. It's rush and cover and the rush can help make the coverage work if it's short-handed. They don't have a pass rush, and on Monday any chance they had of adding the player best suited to their scheme flew straight to Houston.

Baltimore free agent Jadeveon Clowney signed with the Texans, his former team, or at least one of them.

The pass rush is the key to how their pass coverage handles this absence. There is always the possibility they bring in another safety but they have to know the pass rush need is greater. Bryant is coming back and will be there the bulk of the season. The pass rush is no different than it was, except Austin Booker might be better than last year.

GM Ryan Poles has only $8.1 million in cap space and signing a safety and a defensive end seems unlikely unless they restructure a few existing contracts. They still have Darnell Wright's extension to handle and paying too much for a safety to come in and play in the first six games when Hicks is available. Bringing in a lower-cost safety for backup help does make sense, as long as they use some of their available cash to add a veteran pass rusher. Former Eagles and Texans edge Derek Barnett remains a player who would be a huge help because if with an improved Austin Booker they are short on edge rush help.

Either way, the urgency of making moved just got dialed up a bit. If they sign a safety, it needs to be soon so he becomes well versed in the scheme over the next four weeks. If it's an edge, they'd better get it done soon because the supply keeps shrinking.

Clowney's signing is the latest evidence.

The bottom line to all of this is their offense is going to need to be clicking on all cylinders from Week 1. It must carry them and has looked capable of carrying them at least through the first six weeks.

"We've been up and down a little bit," Johnson said Monday. "We started off OK and then that last practice wasn't very good from an offensive perspective. We had way too many mistakes. A couple delay-of-games mixed in there, false starts. The little things like that start to accumulate.

"I think that's probably normal with the volume continuing to increase and yet it's not okay for us and we're going to nip that in the bud. Hopefully we'll get a little bit better in that regard. I was happy with the first four days. I think the team speed is what showed up more than anything. Both sides of the ball. We’ve got some guys that can run and they're doing a really good job of that right now and it's only going to make both sides better as we go.”

Johnson said this about an hour before he lost a good deal of his new defensive speed with an injury.

They'll need to offset lost defensive speed with explosiveness on the other side of the ball even with a move or two on the defensive side because these are not high-quality players they'd be adding now but representatives from the bottom of the free agency list.

So far, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams have shown there are no limits to what their offense can do.

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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.

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