Bear Digest

Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson Got Angry and Then Got Better

After struggling in the first half of last season, Tyrique Stevenson shared the team lead in interceptions and quickly showed how far he has come.

Gene Chamberlain

Tyrique Stevenson sells out to break up a Green Bay pass to Romeo Doubs. Stevenson might have had a stonger second half in 2024 than any other Bears player.
Tyrique Stevenson sells out to break up a Green Bay pass to Romeo Doubs. Stevenson might have had a stonger second half in 2024 than any other Bears player. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin /
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Tyrique Stevenson admits to receiving an education while he allowed 68.2% completions and six touchdowns over the first eight games of his career.

He proved to be a fast learner and it's a major reason some analysts in the offseason labeled him a player likely to break out this year.

"It definitely made me better," Stevenson said of early struggles. "It was a hard pill to swallow, coming from being one of the dominant corners in college then just coming here and giving up passes, giving up deep balls, giving up stuff that I normally do not give up. So it was a hard pill to swallow.

"Just looking back on it, I just take those examples and teach myself not to do those examples and teach myself to be in a better position and use my hands and use my feet."

Whether he learned something, took the coaching of cornerbacks coach Jon Hoke to heart or just got fed up with getting torched, Stevenson was a different player in the second half without a doubt.

His TDs allowed dropped by 50%. His completion percentage allowed was 50.9, 17.3% better. And his four second-half interceptions tied him for the team lead on the season.

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The momentum has been established.

"I'm a big critic of myself," Stevenson said. "But I would say as far as like, just to your point, tackling, just coming with a certain leverage. I know some plays I missed some tackles."

He cited the Browns game when he took the wrong leverage while missing a tackle on David Njoku.

"The fact that I missed that tackle put us in a worse spot," Stevenson said.

So he focuses more on tackling drills and techniques to improve his chances to bring ball carriers to the ground.

the interceptions he made might have provided the biggest boost for his confidence.

"It boosted a lot," Stevenson said. "It just made me feel like I belonged here. I didn't have that many in college. So just the fact that I came out and got four in one year just let me know I can be one of the elite DBs in this league and that's what I'm aiming for."

The player who struggled so mightily early last year early, had no interceptions in two years at Georgia and three for two years at Miami.

Having had a taste of takeaways, he's now taking aim at lofty goals.

"I'm aiming for All-Pro," he said. "More interceptions, more tackles, more PBUs (breakups), just want to elevate my game all round pretty much. And I know I'm capable of it."

Stevenson sees the work the secondary must do in practice against veteran receivers Keenan Allen and DJ Moore as invaluable in trying to improve.

"Keenan's a magician," Allen said. "Just the fact that he can stop mid-route, change his whole route or just the fact that he gives you something different than what you're expecting, he might break inside, but he’s just doing that just to see on the next play how he can get you on a route that's coming to him.

"DJ's just going to be DJ. DJ's gonna run a route and you're not gonna stop it, pretty much."

Coach Matt Eberflus sees Stevenson as part of a trend among college players. The transfer portal is making it so more players come to NFL teams lacking the proper fundamentals.

"We're seeing a little bit where the development piece when we get our hands on them is going to be more and more important," Eberflus said. "So, we got to have great teachers, great developers to really enhance that skill set that we get from the college game.

"That’s what we did with Tyrique. Tyrique came in, his skill set was pretty good, though; he had some good coaching. But we really worked on him, he worked at it and his development was just like this (pointing upward)."

Which is exactly the trend Steven described about his own track for the future.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher 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.