Problems Matching Up for Bears

Jaylon Johnson is not the only Bears player facing a difficult matchup on Monday Night Football against the Minnesota Vikings

Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson has become a central figure in controversy but not simply because of a quick, unwitting comment he made on a podcast somewhere.

The real storm has nothing to do with anything Johnson did or said or really anything his own fault.

It's how the Bears use him that is causing this.

Defensive coordinator Sean Desai has been putting Johnson in man-to-man coverage on the opposition's best receiver all over the field, and twice this season did this against Green Bay's Davante Adams.

It's a discussion topic now because the Bears face the Minnesota Vikings and receiver Justin Jefferson is likely to get the Jaylon Johnson treatment.

"Offenses in this league right now are moving all their guys around to create favorable matchups, whether it's a coverage matchup or a route matchup, they want a certain slot receiver to run a certain route," Desai said. "When you have guys with the skill set of Davante Adams or Justin Jefferson that can do multiple things and are versatile, they’re going to continue to do that.

"We’ve seen it with those two guys–really, a bunch of the receivers we've seen this year when they move guys around. I would expect the Vikings to continue to do that. They’ve done it all year, just like the Packers do. Davante doesn’t just line up as the ‘X’ receiver on one side of the field. He’s moved around all over the place. I would expect these guys to do the same with Justin."

So, expect the same measures from the Bears with Johnson on Jefferson, and the reason this stokes flames has nothing to do with Desai, either.

He can't say the real reason he does this, but it's fairly obvious.

Sure, Johnson is good, but he has given up five touchdown passes this year according to NFL stat partner Sportradar, matching what he did as a rookie. His 101.4 passer rating against he has is only slightly better than last year's 107.5.

The reason they keep doing it obviously is they don't have the cornerbacks with ability to implement their designed defensive scheme properly.

Desai can't say or suggest this because it's GM Ryan Pace who didn't get someone better than Kindle Vildor or Artie Burns signed to play left cornerback this year, or better than Duke Shelley or Xavier Crawford to play the slot.

So Johnson is the victim here, after Kyle Fuller was cut for cap purposes.

In the long run it will help Johnson's coverage skills but for now it's a tough situation for him and he's going to experience it again on Monday night.

Here is that tough matchup and all the others for the Bears against a very high-scoring Vikings team with an that hit 30 points or more six times.

Bears CB Jaylon Johnson vs. Vikings WR Justin Jefferson

Johnson has nine pass breakups this year, which is six off last year's pace and probably reflects the difficult assignment he's had. He did a fine job on Davante Adams for a half last week and what happened after that also is controversial. Johnson said the Packers made adjustments. That implies the Bears didn't make countermeasures, but really there are only so many countermeasures to try when you've resorted to disrupting your own zone-based scheme to the point where one player is chasing another all over the field. Jefferson is playing like he never heard the term "sophomore jinx." He's been spectacular, has one more touchdown catch (8) than his rookie season and needs just four catches and 113 yards to pass last year's season total of 88 receptions and 1,400 yards. Jefferson's speed is a huge edge here and he's getting more wide open in their offense this year. He has had to break a tackle only once every 28.3 receptions compared to once every 9.8 receptions last year. The targeting range has gone up a bit too, at 12.2 yards now as opposed to 11.4 last year. And Kirk Cousins has thrown only one interception when targeting Jefferson as opposed to four last year.

Bears LB Roquan Smith vs. Vikings RB Dalvin Cook

Cook missed a game with an injury two weeks ago but then ran for 205 yards against the Steelers last week after it had been widely reported he would miss two games at least with a shoulder injury. He returned after one week to produce that big effort. Cook hasn't been in the end zone as much this year with six TD runs to 16 last year, and his reception total (28) is down by 16 from last year but he has missed three games with injuries. Smith normally has been up to this challenge. Cook didn't face the Bears until Smith was their starting inside linebacker and in five games against them he averages only 3.57 yards and 4.5 receptions for 19.4 yards per game. However, Smith is still being watched for the hamstring injury he had three weeks ago. He played through it against Arizona, aggravated it against Green Bay and has been limited in a week when they only had walk-through practices. So chasing Cook and his great speed and strength around won't be easy for the leading Bears tackler.

Bears LB Alec Ogletree vs. Vikings TE Tyler Conklin

Conklin, who is 6-foot-3, 248 pounds, was an unknown factor to most in the league but with Kyle Rudolph gone he has stepped up nicely to make 49 receptions. The Bears knew all about him from last year, when he caught a key TD pass against them in Minneapolis. Conklin is a big weapon for Minnesota in this for a few reasons. One is they are shorthanded at wide receiver with Adam Thielen nursing a high ankle sprain. Another is the Bears can't really afford to match up safety Tashaun Gipson on Conklin much if they're going to play Johnson on Jefferson. It's going to be Ogletree or an extra defensive back, whoever that could be considering all the injuries and illness affecting the Bears secondary. Ogletree remains the lowest-ranked inside linebacker in the league (83rd) according to PFF, with a grade of 28.4.

Bears C Sam Mustipher vs. Vikings LB Eric Kendricks

While this linebacker spot might not be an exact match per field location with the Bears center, he will be in this game because Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is more likely to use his old tactic of double-A gap blitz facing Justin Fields for the first time. Fields' weakness early in the year was picking up the blitz and standing in to find his receiver options. Kendricks has five sacks on the year and is sure to challenge Mustipher, who has never been highly regarded by PFF but has managed to up his grade over several months to the 51.2, although it's 35th among the league's 38 graded centers. It might not be on Mustipher to block the blitzer one on one, but he could, and he also is going to need to be making line adjustments to prevent this tactic.

Bears LT Teven Jenkins vs. Vikings DE Tashawn Bower

The Vikings' outside pass rush has been decimated by injury situations. They're using Patrick Jones or Tashawn Bower off the side of the ball where Jenkins figures to start. Neither Jones nor Bower would rate an edge over anyone except Jenkins, who will make his first start and struggled mightily against Green Bay when pressed into replacing injured Jason Peters. Jenkins hadn't had training camp, preseason or regular-season contact work until the game with the Packers and is the Bears' second-round pick this year. So he never had real contract work in an NFL practice or game setting until that game. He sure didn't get it this week with only walk-through practices. Jones is actually a tougher matchup than Bower, who relies more on his strength and wouldn't have a great speed edge against Jenkins. The Vikings can come with blitzes or by lining up extra linebackers in rush situations on this side, as well. Whichever player the Vikings line up off that edge, he'll rate an edge over Jenkins. Wait until next year when Jenkins isn't coming off back surgery and has been able to practice. Things could change rapidly then.

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