Bears' DC Dennis Allen is making a big mistake with Tyrique Stevenson

With a playoff game looming, the Chicago Bears need their best players on the field.

Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

It's officially do-or-die time for the Chicago Bears. The playoffs have arrived, and they've drawn the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card round on Saturday. To say there's significant pressure on them to win would be an understatement. Losing at home to your biggest rival to end your season would wipe out a good chunk of the goodwill that this team has built up after winning 11 games and clinching the NFC North championship.

It's this kind of pressure to win that makes defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's recent comments concerning. In their humiliating Week 18 loss to the Detroit Lions, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson didn't see the field for a single snap. In fact, for much of this season he's taken a step back behind Nahshon Wright.

Jason Lieser, a Bears reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, asked Allen about this discrepancy in snap counts on Wednesday, and Allen declared that Jaylon Johnson and Nahshon Wright are just playing better football than Stevenson.

Bears DC Dennis Allen says CB Tyrique Stevenson can still be a factor, but simply Jaylon Johnson and Nahshon Wright are playing better. He says Stevenson is "in the right mindset" and he's still upbeat on him.

— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) January 7, 2026

The Bears need to share the load in the cornerback room

With all due respect to Allen, and he's earned plenty of it, this seems like a flawed analysis of his players. Yes, Wright has had an amazing season when it comes to taking the ball away, and he probably should have been included in the 2026 NFL Pro Bowl roster. But Wright is about as boom-or-bust as any cornerback in the NFL. When he's not grabbing interceptions, he's getting absolutely burned in coverage.

In fact, the entire cornerback room is vastly underperforming their preseason expectations. Jaylon Johnson is clearly still hurt and not playing up to his usual standard. Even newcomer CJ Gardner-Johnson, who is still on the Bears' injury report with a concussion, has cooled off after his hot start.

To say that Wright and Johnson are flat-out better than Stevenson just doesn't jive with what we're all seeing on the field. No one is saying that Stevenson would solve all of Chicago's defensive problems, but I don't see the sense in not including him more heavily in the defensive rotations.

Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

The Packers are coming to town hoping to reassert their dominance over this rivalry, and they're getting healthy at just the right time. Quarterback Jordan Love has had little trouble dicing up this secondary before, and Dennis Allen needs to be ready to make adjustments to deal with that, especially when it comes to personnel usage.

With any luck, the weather will play a big role in this Wild Card game and help Chicago ground Green Bay's high-flying passing attack. If both teams are forced into a ground-and-pound scrum in the mud, I like Chicago's chances of emerging victorious.

David Banks-Imagn Images

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