Skip to main content
Bear Digest

Dennis Allen Not Giving Bears Rookie Malik Muhammad First Dibs at Slot

In the first Bears practice there were a handful of DBs taking over injured Kyler Gordon's role but one who hasn't played the slot much in the past had first crack at it.
Gene Chamberlain|
Jaylon Jones got first crack at replacing Kyler Gordon during Wednesday's first practice.
Jaylon Jones got first crack at replacing Kyler Gordon during Wednesday's first practice. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Chicago Bears

Bears slot cornerback plans with Kyler Gordon away on the physically unable to perform list look more like a baseball team using the bullpen-by-committee approach.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen plans to look at several players with Gordon away due to a calf strain.

This includes rookie fourth-round pick Malik Muhammad. However, at Wednesday's first practice the chief assignment fell to veteran backup outside cornerback Jaylon Jones, their undrafted free agent from Mississippi who has been on and off the roster at times in the past. They used him with the starters during two full-squad non-padded scrimmage sessions, but did use veteran Cam Lewis in the starter position while doing 7-on-7 work. They also ran Josh Blackwell in at slot with backups.

Jones hasn't played extensively on defense since his rookie year of 2022, when he had to play nearly half the snaps. He has been on for only 263 plays of defense over the past three seasons.

It's possible they want to bring along Muhammad a bit more slowly and not force him into playing a position he isn't ready to try. Muhammad wasn't a slot cornerback in college, but he did play slot on Tuesday with the third team and played right outside cornerback with the second team.

"Well, look, there's a lot of stuff that goes on at that position," Allen explained. "You know, when you play outside at corner, I don't want this to seem wrong, but things don't happen quite as fast. Obviously, the speed of the receivers on the outside edge, you know, that's coming at you fast but in terms of when you play inside in the nickel, you got things that are happening on the outside of you, you have things that are happening on the inside of you, you got more responsibility in the run game.

"So there's just a lot more that goes along with playing that position."

Why Muhammad could fit there eventually

Allen isn't going to rule out the chance Muhammad could eventually get that spot should the soft tissue injuries continue for Gordon. He has one major quality necessary to play there.

"Look, the kid's smart," Allen said. "We'll give him a look at it and see where he's at and let the competition throughout the course of training camp kind of play out. And I think, you know, evaluation is something that takes time. It doesn't happen in a day or two.

The DBs didn't get a lot of chances to defend downfield against Caleb Williams in the first practice but had to be glad becaue Allen made all of the defense do the required 40 up-downs, just as he did last year at the outset.

The first few practices are shorter. Dontae Manning probably had the play of the day on defense with a leaping pass breakup on the final play as Case Keenum tried to go deep along the sidelines to rookie Zavion Thomas.

Williams stuck mostly to tight end or shorter throws to wide receivers as the secondary held up well despite changing faces.

"Guys were out there flying around," safety Coby Bryant said after his first training camp practice. "It’s good to see, honestly. But the biggest thing is when we put on pads."

Or as Allen said, "Listen, it's hard to evaluate a lot of stuff, all right, when you're practicing in underwear. So, we'll be able to have a better feel of what we got in the run game, what we have in the passing game, when we start putting on the pads."

They did get a good look at rookie safety Dillon Thieneman with starters in the deep safety spot. Throughout offseason work, Thieneman had been moved between first and second team and wasn't always in the deep spot, where he seems a natural.

"Liked what I saw in the spring with him, and I think, mentally, I think he's going to be able to handle everything," Allen said. "So I think he'll be a guy that I plan on him picking things up pretty quickly.”

The slot position won't be defined so quickly. It will be a day-to-day process, at least until Gordon returns.

Sign Up For the Bears Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Chicago Bears Newsletter

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
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.

Home/News