Bear Digest

The Chicago Bears Position Group Totally Disrespected by Ratings

Analysis: Jaylon Johnson and the rest of the Chicago Bears secondary appears to have been overlooked by their low ranking from one analytics website.

Gene Chamberlain

Kyler Gordon goes airborne for an interception against the Atlanta Falcons. The Bears secondary is earning little respect despite a strong second half last year.
Kyler Gordon goes airborne for an interception against the Atlanta Falcons. The Bears secondary is earning little respect despite a strong second half last year. / Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports
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In the world of football analytics, sometimes up is down and down is up, good is bad.

It's bizzarro football world, as comic book geeks might say.

Take the Pro Football Focus rankings for secondaries and offensive lines, for instance.

Few would look at the performance of the Bears offensive line and suggest they are a group in the top half of the league. After allowing 50 sacks or more for three straight seasons and improving personnel by acquiring only two lower-rated centers, they were still ranked 10 spots higher than last year by PFF at 11th.

Meanwhile, the Bears secondary triggered a second-half 2023 surge with:

  • 16 interceptions of a season's total of 22, tied for best in the league;
  • a passer rating allowed over the final 10 weeks of 75.7, third best for the entire league in that span.

Yet, PFF's rating for secondaries has come out this week and the Bears are ranked 19th in the NFL. They are behind both the Packers and Lions in the NFC North.

Uh, did we miss something here?

This certainly will not go unnoticed at Halas Hall, where the defense—and especially defensive backs—have a habit of thriving on disrespect.

Throughout the offseason work they expressed certainty the entire secondary would be starting at a high point this season.

"It's exciting because you look at every position group, and we're talented, we're great everywhere," safety Jaquan Brisker said. "All we've got to do is just really put it together."

Apparently this is what PFF is waiting for to upgrade them, although it definitely wasn't how the website treated the Bears offensive line. The Bears were rated one spot below Houston. Detroit's secondary is rated 11th and Green Bay's eighth.

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"The Bears signed cornerback Jaylon Johnson to a big contract extension this offseason after a career year," PFF's John Kosko wrote. "They also added safety Kevin Byard, who’s been one of the best safeties in the NFL since entering the league. Cornerbacks Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson had their ups and downs in 2023, as did safety Jaquan Brisker, but this unit could be extremely good in 2024 if it plays to its high-end abilities."

Perhaps better health will help them exceed these low expectations.

"Last year, we weren't healthy in the first half and it showed," Brisker said.

They were without slot cornerback Gordon, his backup Josh Blackwell and former starting safety Eddie Jackson for big chunks of the season's first half. Their only change this year was adding Kevin Byar to replace Jackson, who had a 120.6 passer rating against last season according to Sportradar.

"We got back a little too late. But we started. That chemistry is going."

It's just not going well enough for PFF to notice at this point. Or has it?

Byard is ranked 12th for this season among all safeties individually by PFF and within the division is ranked below only Green Bay's Xavier McKinney, who is coming over from the Giants. PFF has Johnson graded fifth among all cornerbacks after he was No. 1 last year. And even second-year cornerback Stevenson was graded as PFF's fourth-highest cornerback at providing tight coverage last year.

And after tying the 49ers for first in the NFL with 22 total interceptions, the Bears secondary is 19th?

Apparently you need at least four members of the secondary graded highly by PFF before you can earn rating in the top half of the league?

Bizzaro.

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Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.