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Bear Digest

One Loser Possible from Chain Reaction With Bears' Wildly Positive Injury Report

Everyone on the Bears roster was healthy Friday, and it's going to mean someone eventually gets bumped from a starting role. But who?
Gene Chamberlain|
Tetairoa McMillan tries to get around Cam Lewis in Sunday's Bears win.
Tetairoa McMillan tries to get around Cam Lewis in Sunday's Bears win. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Tackle Ozzy Trapilo's removal from Friday's injury report is no doubt the flashing Vegas-style neon sign for the Bears heading into Sunday's game with the Minnesota Vikings.

Naturally, people would feel excited to see Trapilo back after even GM Ryan Poles was once acknowledging reluctantly how it might be a full season without their starting left tackle.

While Trapilo is healthy, it seems likely there will be at least one more start by Braxton Jones. Trapilo just hasn't had a lot of contact work yet or sufficient testing of the knee he injured, but he has to be in the threshold or they would simply leave him as questionable for the game.

Either way, with everyone healthy and no one on this week's Bears final injury report, there is one loser to all of it. That would be Tyrique Stevenson.

Safety Xavier Woods is over the groin injury he suffered that kept him from playing in the opener. On the other hand, his replacement, Cam Lewis, played a respectable game lining up next to Dillon Thieneman.

"Kudos to Cam Lewis really next to Dillon, as well, because he went into the day not even knowing he was going to start for us at safety," Johnson said of Lewis.

Lewis came out with Pro Football Focus' second-highest grade in coverage in Sunday's game for the Bears, although PFF did have him at a 108.3 passer rating against when targeted. It's not really his position, but he played it well.

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There's more to it than this.

What Dennis Allen said about secondary

"I think the thing we know about Cam, one of the big reasons why we went out and got him is because we do feel like he's versatile and can fill a lot of roles," Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said. "In this particular game last week, he had to fill in at the safety position."

However, if Woods is ready now, as the injury report says, it could start a chain reaction. Woods goes to safety, Lewis moves to slot cornerback. It might seem that causes Muhammad being moved off the slot cornerback position now, after they spent all training camp and offseason getting him ready to play it, would defeat the purpose of all their work.

It would make sense, though, because there would be a new, higher purpose for Muhammad. They could put him on the outside, where he has far more experience playing.

They could relegate Tyrique Stevenson to the bench.

Allen wasn't tipping off anything about how the secondary would look.

"We'll see how this week plays out," Allen said. "But I do think Malik's done a good job, playing in the nickel. There's still a lot of things for him to learn.

"There were things from last week that he can hopefully learn from and improve in those areas. But I think each and every week he continues to improve."

The thing is, he doesn't need to do it now. Lewis' strong spot is the slot. Stevenson suffered through a poor start to his season and has the worst possible passer rating against that a defensive player can receiver, 158.3.

Giving Stevenson one more chance might seem like the right thing to do, the fair thing. Johnson doesn't operate based on "the right thing," or the "fair thing." He's about winning. And if they can improve markedly by putting Stevenson on the bench, this is what they need to do.

Giving up a few deep plays to the Vikings would certainly mean touchdowns while facing Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

A chain reaction is never as exciting as the big-splash move, like Trapilo being deemed healthy enough to play. But it's the kind of thing that can take the Bears a long ways and definitely would let them look better than they did in pass defense during the opener.

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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.

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