Bear Digest

Depth chart says Tyrique Stevenson as Nahshon Wright fights on

The first Bears depth chart has Tyrique Stevenson leading in the battle for No. 2 cornerback with Nahshon Wright but this "open battle" has only just begun.
Gene Chamberlain|
First Rule of Chicago Bears Fight Club
First Rule of Chicago Bears Fight Club

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Cornerback Nahshon Wright suffered one of the few defeats he's had in a Bears training camp practice Tuesday when Rome Odunze slipped behind him and caught a bomb from Caleb Williams for a TD.

"When I looked I kind of faded away from him, so it was more so me," Wright said. "I just needed to look and lean. But it was a great throw. Great catch for sure."

For Wright, almost everything else has been positive, even if the first Bears depth chart released Tuesday has him behind Tyriqu Stevenson in the battle for second cornerback. The 6-foot-4 defender has surprised enough in camp that he's in what coach Ben Johnson referred to as an open battle with Stevenson for that second cornerback spot, but unlike most players in such battles he gets to play with starters every day because starting cornerback Jaylon Johnson is out injured.

Wright is keeping Stevenson on his toes with a tough challenge after he played three years in Dallas and part of last year with Minnesota.

“When I first got here it was just more so to come in and compete," Wright said. "Show what I can do defensively and then obviously, my value on special teams as well. Just come in and compete.

"As far as training camp, it's just been a blessing to be able to go out there and compete and show that I can play with the best of them.”

Stevenson said he's not taking this challenge as a personal afront or slap in his face.

“The competition has been great," Stevenson said. "It's competition all over the board. Everybody's position is pretty much up for grabs as they say, because at the end of the day, the best man needs to be on the field to make sure that this team wins.

"What I've been doing is I've been coming in, putting in daily deposit every day, meeting with the coaches, extra, coming in early, doing anything I have to do to prove to this team and to these coaches that I'm the guy for the other side. Just doing my job.”

The fact it's a different defensive scheme than in the past ensures neither has a decided advantage in this regard. In other words, Stevenson is on his own. Because coordinator Dennis Allen's scheme is heavily man-to-man coverage, they both seem to like it.

“We get to be in the receiver's face," Wright said. "He wants us to challenge them. We press probably 90, 95% of the time, so that for sure. We get in their face and compete."

If there is an edge in this battle, physically it's Wright's frame. A 6-4 cornerback would make him tallest at the position in Bears history.

“Then just being physical and then knowing the game," he said. "I've been in the league for five years; I've seen quite a bit. I’ve played with what, three All-Pro corners and one defensive player of the year." 

That was in Dallas, where he was with current Bears defensive backs coach Al Harris.

“He's had me since a rookie," Wright said. "He's taught me everything that I know up until this point. Besides college, but the way the game is played now, he's taught me everything. We're super close.

“He's played the game, and he has played it at a high level. He knows what it looks like, he knows how to coach it, when it looks bad, he knows how to coach it. When it's going good, he knows how to coach it. For him, there's never a good rep. There's something you can do better, he is super nitpicky.”

For Wright, the whole idea of competing for a starting spot is a step above what he expected coming in, and he said it's difficult determine what that would even mean for him. He seems to have immediately vaulted past Terell Smith, the third-year Bears backup cornerback and gone right to the verge of playing a big role with starters.

"Obviously, it'd be nice to have it, but first I want make the 53 (man roster)," he said. "Then, happened from there, that's up to the coaching staff that has nothing to do with me."

There are no favorites being played even if Stevenson is someone Harris knows well, and certainly the coaches didn't tip off who's leading the battle until Tuesday's first depth chart came out.

"I just come out and do what I do, put my best foot forward every day," Wright said. "They haven't told us anything. Nothing has been told to anyone. I just come in and try to put my best foot forward.”

For Stevenson, last year's Fail Mary play that caused a defeat is a memory but not driving him in this competition.

“I drive myself every day," Stevenson said. "In my family. I'm the only son. I'm the big brother. So my life drives me every day.

"I don't use anything external to drive me because at the end of the day that can die out. My story drives me every day."

That and competition from Wright. And with preseason starting Sunday, it’s about to become more intense.

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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.