Failure to Communicate Could Plague DBs

With so many different players on the field with the first team in the secondary throughout camp, the Bears somehow have to maintain communication lines

The Bears don't need to end up like Luke Jackson being lectured by Strother Martin about a failure to communicate.

Actually, this would be more of an inability to communicate than a failure because the players are currently less than a cohesive unit.

While offensive line injuries have garnered much of the attention in Bears training camp, their defensive secondary has been nearly as decimated and the communication can suffer.

How well the cornerbacks and safeties talk and work together on a given play to apply the defensive coverage is critical and this connection doesn't come overnight.

When the Bears are using their two backup safeties throughout training camp due to injuries, when they have a new veteran cornerback vying for a starting spot and two other cornerbacks who have less than a year of actual experience, they can use as many healthy bodies in their starting secondary as possible each day.

They're not getting this.

"We're not worried about it," cornerback Desmond Trufant said. "At the end of the day we've got to keep growing as a unit, keep communicating, keep talking, keep learning each other's strengths and weaknesses and how we can get better.

" And you know, it's going to be a good thing."

A team doesn't want to be going into the opener with little or no practice time for a secondary that has two new starters and inexperience at two positions.

Trufant figures the Bears have enough experience to get through this issue. 

None of the injuries they've had could be construed as season-ending. Trufant sees Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson as veteran safeties who could return without needing as much practice time with younger players.

"It's just repetition, they're veterans," Trufant said. "They're going to start right in. They've been doing it for a long time together."

Gipson started out camp fine, but shortly thereafter suffered a groin injury. Jackson came to camp with pulled hamstring.

Jaylon Johnson missed a short period of time but returned, and Trufant had a thigh injury that sidelined him for one day, but he quickly returned. 

Considering Trufant is battling Kindle Vildor for the starting spot at left cornerback, staying on the field at that position is going to be critical.

"It probably just comes down to the availability and just seeing the more reps you can get and see where they're at, the better," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "Probably just to keep it simple as your best ability is your availability as you go through this thing.

"And when we have competition, we gotta be able to see what guys can do. Again, none of it is because of these guys not wanting to be out there. It's just part of training camp. They're pushing through and working through it and we just gotta adapt."

Johnson thinks they can fight through the changing lineup because no matter who is on the field, the communication lines between safeties and cornerbacks must continue anyway.

"For me, it doesn't matter if it's Duke, Thomas (Graham), Kindle, Trufant, no matter who it is, for me the communication should always be there," Johnson said. "And just kind of feeling out who we all are individually in the secondary is very important, too, because guys go down.

"You've gotta be able to know who you're playing against, how people like to play and just different things like that. Communication is key throughout the whole (defensive backs) room."

Ultimately, Trufant believes effort and working together lets them overcome any problems they could have because of the changing lineups.

"We just get to make plays, man, at the end of the day," Trufant said. "Obviously we got our nuances. We just compete. Everybody does their job, plays with relentless effort and everything else will kind of take care of itself.

"We got a lot of dogs on defense, it’s definitely exciting."

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