Tyrique Stevenson in Command Despite Flaws

The Bears left cornerback battle had been close but toward the end of preseason Tyrique Stevenson seems to have taken over first-team snaps despite a few big mistakes.

An often-repeated phrase during the Bears Lovie Smith era was how the players themselves would decide camp battles and not the coaches.

Smith maintained by the end of preseason two players or more locked in a battle would make it obvious which way to go. Whether or not this is true in football depends upon the situation but it has happened for starters with these Bears.

Not many real starting battles existed at the outset of the offseason but the hottest one then was obviously left cornerback, and at this point Tyrique Stevenson seems the easy winner. It's almost been by forfeit.

The second-round rookie has emerged ahead of fifth-rounder Terell Smith, taking up almost all first-team play reps at the position during practice despite a few flaws.

The main one is getting flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in each of the first two preseason games and the other was rather comical and that was his inability to catch a ball right there to be intercepted. 

At least it was comical because it was preseason—if he'd let a pass like the one Gardner Minshew threw for a touchdown go right through his hands in the regular season, no one would be joking about it.

His goals for Saturday's final preseason game: "Just show I can make improvements, as far as last game, and I can actually catch, is pretty much the only improvements I want to show for this game."

He said it laughing about the catch part, but takeaways are critical to what coach Matt Eberflus wants to see from his defense and he is working at it so as not to let any other opportunities slip through his hands.

"Just staying late, watching film, and trying to understand where I'm at on the field at all times, doing JUGS (machine) after practice just to make sure that when I have my opportunities and when it’s approachable I can go ahead and approach it, follow the HITS principle, and be able to get takeaways," he said.

The missed interception appeared a case of unfortunate timing. He happened to turn and realize the ball had been thrown at the wrong instant because it was upon him already and went through his hands to the receiver for the TD. 

The penalties had even Eberflus talking about them after the game, as well as defensive passing game coordinator/cornerbacks coach Jon Hoke.

"You know, I like his physical style of play," Hoke said. "You can't have penalties. But he does have a physical presence on the field. Obviously, his size helps him in those things. But he also has his mindset. He's a physical type of football player. And that’s always welcome here."

Stevenson believes this was addressed this properly.

"I feel like I understand where I'm at and I understand what I need to do moving forward and I'm just really trying my best to see how far I can get with creating this intensity and making sure I don't cross the line," Stevenson said. "I feel like I haven't overstepped yet."

Officials didn't think so in the last one.

"With the penalty I had last game, that was just a simple mistake," he said. "It won't happen again. It feels like I haven't hit that threshold yet. I understand where I'm at and how I've got to move to play this game."

At least one of the penalties seemed like a bad break for Stevenson in terms of mistaken timing, sort of like with the interception that went through his hands to the receiver for a TD.

Not all the breaks have gone against him in this battle with Smith for starting cornerback.  He seemed to have squandered an early lead as Smith came back from an injury during OTAs to earn a 50-50 split on first-team reps. But then Smith suffered another minor setback for a few days and Stevenson took advantage.

The rhythm of the battle with Smith for Stevenson hasn't been totally unlike his first exposure to cornerback. As a high school sophomore he got moved from linebacker because a teammate broke an ankle and it didn't go well.

"I got threw in and I got tortured that whole year," he said. "I had to switch numbers twice. I had to go back from DB to receiver and I just vowed from that day to go out there and be the best version of myself at corner. And my junior year in high school is when I fell in love with it."

Now the Bears have to hope he can take this persistence into a season when he is their main hope at left cornerback, although not the only one.

Smith has recovered from his injuries and is still battling but time is up after Saturday and the official winner will be declared in Week 1 of the regular season even if it seems a formality at this point.

The best way to put it is Stevenson seems to have the job within his grasp. He just needs to make sure against Josh Allen and the Bills that it doesn't slip through the way that ball did last week in Indianapolis.

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