Bear Digest

How the Bears Solve Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker Safety Dilemma

With none of the top four Bears safeties under contract come mid-March, GM Ryan Poles has plenty to consider but one path make sense from a long-term standpoint.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears safeties Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard route Jahmyr Gibbs out of bounds during the Week 2 loss at Detroit.
Bears safeties Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard route Jahmyr Gibbs out of bounds during the Week 2 loss at Detroit. | David Reginek-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears' safety hole is a gaping roster chasm at the moment, with no one under contract.

Of course, eventually they'll have backups signed who they do want and those require little cap space. Those aren’t really problems. What isn't clear is how they'll address the starting two positions.
 

"We're going to take a step back and evaluate that and put that puzzle together,” GM Ryan Poles said after the season. “It's actually four safeties that are not under contract for next year. I have a lot of faith in our process that we'll do that.”

If you put any stock in offseason salary cap projections, Kevin Byard would cost the Bears $11.1 million a year on a new contract as their 32-year-old deep safety starter and defensive leader. Jaquan Brisker would cost them $11.1 million a year as the other starter, who must play all over and more often in the than the other safety position. Both figures are from Spotrac.com.

Brisker has the ability to pass rush, cover, blitz, and basically do everything required, plus he is only 26 years old.

It looks like the Bears will need to make a tough call between two safeties because finding a way to pay both, if projected salaries are close, is going to be difficult in tight cap conditions as they also add free agent defensive line help.

Determining who to keep at this position depends on what they need and what they can get.

They need all-purpose type safeties who can come into the box and stop the run, blitz and play deep. It's the same way at both positions but less so for the deep safety.

Jaquan Brisker

He played a full season for the first time without concussion issues. Playing more of the snaps as a strong safety in the box than Byard, Brisker did a solid job as a run stopper with a 34th ranking among 98 safeties by Pro Football Focus. He also graded 23rda as a blitzer among the 98. However, the one thing the Bears needed to see from him in a contract year besides is health was pass coverage ability. He had shown real promise the previous season in this regard for the first time before his season-ending concussion in the fifth game. Brisker went out after a 71.5 passer rating against while being targeted and hadn't allowed a TD pass.

In this past season, Brisker came in needing a better year to prove himself to a new coordinator. He gave up 75% completions (36 of 48) and allowed five TD passes for a 127.6 passer rating against, according to Stathead and Pro Football Reference.

Brisker did a solid job stopping the run, ranking 27th among all 173 safeties who played this season, according to PFF. He still wasn't graded as high as Byard was at this (13th), although he was required to go into the box much more often to help with it. PFF tracked him in the box 421 times out of 1,220 plays including the postseason.

Kevin Byard

Although he had All-Pro status for the third time and made seven interceptions, Stathead/Pro Football Reference saw seven instances when he allowed a TD pass. That was a career high. However, his 63.5% completions-allowed rate was his lowest since 2021. Pair that with his 13th ranking against the run from PFF and the leadership card, and it's a difficult combination to lose simply because he's 33 when next season starts. There will be a good market for a player as accomplished as Byard, even at his age.

A route to the future

When the season ended, it wasn’t something Poles said about both that seemed to indicate a likely path, as much as what he didn’t say about one.

“I think that Kevin is a special player, I have no problem saying that that is a player that we would like to have back,” Poles said. “But, again, when you add the other safeties into that mix, and all of the other decisions that we have across the roster, cap restraints, things like that, it will be a challenge. But, that's part of what we do."

As for Brisker: crickets.

It's likely from a longer-term perspective that defensive coordinator Dennis Allen would want to replace both positions in coming seasons, although just one this year because of cost. And Brisker would be the one replaced while Byard says around.

Allen's specialty is defensive backs and using them, and it's more likely he has particular needs to be met. Doing just one change this season requires Byard to stay as a leader and someone who can help groom a drafted safety and backups at the other positions for the future. Byard has value even beyond his playing skills, it seems.

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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.