Bears Defense Now Seeing Risk of Relying on Inexperience

The Bears keep offering up praise for their young backup defensive players who've been pressed into action at season's end.

Coaches have no other choice than to back those players because they were never supplied with a more experienced backup group.

The truth is they've played hard but they are a big part of the reason the defense has leaked badly even during some of their victories at season's end.

With Jaylon Johnson missing the final 3 1/2 games, the Bears have been without their starter at right cornerback. Johnson has enjoyed a solid rookie year even without making an interception. Even while missing three games due to his shoulder injury, Johnson remains sixth in the league in pass defenses with 15.

According to Sportradar, Johnson has allowed just 56.4% completions when targeted (44 of 78).

They've also been without starting nickel cornerback Buster Skrine due to a sixth reported concussion in his career. Skrine was going through a down season compared to last year. He had allowed 78.1% of passes to be completed when targeted, for a passer rating of 125.7, and also gave up five touchdown passes.

Nevertheless, when starters go out the impact is beyond statistics. It affects the other players in the secondary and often leads to poor communication, blown coverages and long touchdown passes. Green Bay's 72-yard strike to Marquez Valdes-Scantling in Sunday's Bears loss was a perfect example.

Kindle Vildor and Duke Shelley filled in for the missing defensive backs and have had marginal success.

"There's gonna be times where they make mistakes mentally—that sometimes y'all won't even see or know because you don't know the (defensive) scheme," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "Other times you're gonna know it because they get beat one-on-one. It's how you rebound from that and I think they're both mentally locked in that way."

Vildor has given up two touchdown passes, a 131.2 passer rating when targeted and 70.6% completions.

Shelley, a second-year player, has been slightly better with 118.1 passer rating allowed and 80% completions, as well as one TD.

Both are learning under fire. Vildor had no preseason and is only significant playing time had been special teams.

"He's got to learn as he goes," Nagy said last week. "That's a growth of a rookie."

Shelley had 15 snaps as a defensive player in his first 28 games, and spent the rest of the time inactive or playing special teams.

It's possible linebacker Roquan Smith will miss the playoff game, as well. He suffered an elbow injury and the Bears haven't been forthcoming with information but the experience they had with such injuries last year indicates a possible season-ending situation. Danny Trevathan missed half the season with one in 2019 and Akiem Hicks missed two-thirds of the season with one.

Like in the secondary, GM Ryan Pace supplied the Bears with virtually no NFL experience at backup linebacker.

Replacement Josh Woods had almost no NFL defensive experience. He had played on 18 NFL defensive plays prior to getting in for 28 defensive snaps last week after Smith's first-quarter injury.

Woods allowed four of the five passes in his area of the field to be completed and has a 141.2 passer rating against for his 28 plays to date.

Now the Bears will be trying to stop a New Orleans offense which uses backs and tight ends extensively as receivers and proved an extreme test for Smith in their first game this season. So the chances of limiting the Saints with Woods on the field appear bleak.

When the Bears had Nick Kwiatkoski they had better inside linebacker depth than most teams because of his extensive starting experience. They also had Kevin Pierre-Louis last season, who had been a replacement and situational player with over 500 defensive snaps in his career around the league before being called upon after season-ending injuries to Smith and Trevathan last season.

The only move Pace made to put experience behind Trevathan and Smith this year was retaining Devante Bond, a player they cut seveal times and is now on their practice squad behind inexperienced Joel Iyiegbuniwe and Woods.

The failures of untested players in crucial situations are an example for the general manager of the Bears in future years, whether it's still Pace or a replacement.

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