New Safety Adds Dependability Factor

Bears safety Kevin Byard prides himself on availability, whether it's practice or for games.

If the Bears gained anything from the signing of safety Kevin Byard for two years at a reported $15 million, it's dependability.

Byard hasn't missed a game, except when the schedule and his mid-season trade last year from Tennessee to Philadelphia took one from him.

In fact, Byard says he hasn't missed practices.

"Ever," he said. "I wanted to have some vet days off but I guess they never materialized just yet."

Well, there was the week in 2021 when he went on the COVID-19 list. But he managed to get sick during the bye week so the next time Tennessee played a game he was on the field. 

Last year he only played 16 games because the Titans already had their bye week when they dealt him to the Eagles, who had yet to have a bye week. So he lost a week of the season in the trade. He even started with a new team the week of his trade.

"First and foremost, I've been blessed," Byard said. "This game … (former Titans coach) Mike Vrabel used to always tell the team there's a 100 percent guaranteed injury rate. At some point you're going to get injured, hurt, banged up, whatever it may be.

"I've been blessed. I think I take body maintenance and my career very seriously, when it comes to off the field, recovery, nutrition, doing all those things. And I think that's something that not necessarily I can bring to the team or bring to the guys, but watching me how I take care of my body and things like that, they say availability is your best abilty. That’s been one of my best abilities for sure."

Eddie Jackson, cut by the Bears before Byard's arrival, had missed five games due to injuries each of the last two seasons and three in 2021. It's been an issue with the position overall as the other Bears starter, Jaquan Brisker, missed two games in both of his first two seasons.

Byard has 28 career interceptions in eight seasons without a missed game. If he'd made those interceptions with the Bears, he'd rank fifth in franchise history.

About the only thing to slow down Byard has been the trade he went through last year. The Eagles didn't choose to sign him again after they had traded for him in the final year of his contract.

"Yeah, it was a whirlwind for sure, Byard said. "I think we had just gotten back from London and I got traded on a Monday or something like that. It was a whirlwind, I'm not oblivious to the fact that guys change teams all the time in this league but for me, obviously being somewhere for so long, I'm a big routine and regimen-based guy, so all of that getting thrown off and going to Philly.

"But being a professional football player it's our job to make the hard look easy. Nobody really cares if you got traded midway through the year, it's just something you have to deal with as a team. I definitely think I did as best as I could with the situation. Never missed a practice, never missed a game there either. Did everything I possibly could to be a piece on that defense. It just didn't work out. And sometimes that's just life. I think I played pretty well as far as with the circumstances was there."

Byard had one interception and three pass defenses in 10 games last year for 10 games, then wound up in free agency.

"Never been a free agent before," he said. "I wouldn't say it was like nerve-wracking or anything like that. Obviously, I knew I would bounce on my feet pretty quickly."

Landing with the Bears and a coach he was familiar with helps. His Titans played against coach Matt Eberflus' Colts four years, twice a year.

"But for the Bears specifically, this defense, I really like what coach Matt is building here just as a team," Byard said. "There's a lot of things to be excited about. But like I said, this defense has a lot of great pieces here for sure, especially in the secondary.

"Obviously, just signed Jaylon (Johnson) to a big extension, I really think highly of him. He's a really great player. And obviously, getting with Brisker, Jaquan, I think he's a really good ascending player as well. But obviously, there's a lot of pieces, from Kyler Gordon, obviously Tyrique Stevenson was a rookie last year. So I like what they're doing in the secondary. And obviously, you got Montez Sweat, who obviously you brought in in a trade. Actually Montez went to my rival high school, Stevenson high school down in Georgia. So like I said, a lot of great pieces and obviously two really good linebackers, so excited about this defense and just excited about the prospect of what we could in this team and the challenge of obviously trying to knock Detroit off the high horse."

He anticipates no problem adjusting to a Bears scheme heavy with zone coverage.

"Defense, there's only so many ways you can run Cover-3, Cover-2, Cover-4, whatever it may be," Byard said. "So, I'm excited to get into the film room, get into the playbook and see how they do things differently here.

"It's probably going to mostly be terminology. I've played in a lot of defenses. So, usually, when I get with a coordinator for a little bit, I can kind of start to anticipate what type of calls he's going to make. So, I want to be able to be that second coach on the field, being that communicator on the back end."

A dependable kind of communicator.

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