Pro Football Focus showed serious disrespect to the Chicago Bears’ secondary ahead of the 2024 regular season, putting them in the bottom half of the league. The Bears prioritized taking care of the secondary this offseason when they extended Jaylon Johnson’s contract and signed safety Kevin Byard.
PFF ranked the Chicago Bears secondary 20th in 2023
Let’s start off with a summary of why PFF ranked the Bears secondary 20th before the 2023 season:
This secondary finished the 2022 season with the fourth-worst PFF grade in the league, but the talent is there for them to take a step forward in 2023. Jackson’s 74.3 coverage grade was 13th at the position last year, and we’ve seen high-level play from Johnson. Expect much better play from this unit in 2023.
One would assume the Bears’ secondary would be significantly upgraded from the 2023 season following the signing of two-time All-Pro Byard, and given that the rest of the young secondary gained another year of experience in the NFL. Stevenson was one of the Bears’ better defenders toward the end of his rookie season, and he could be lethal this year.
The Chicago Bears’ secondary is ranked 19th by PFF in 2024
Kevin Fishbain with The Athletic thinks the back seven (though he’s worried about the pass rush) is one of the best in the NFL coming into the season. Indeed, PFF ranks the Bears as having the third-best linebacker unit and the 27th-ranked defensive line. But they ranked the Bears’ secondary 19th, just one spot better than they were last year:
The Bears signed cornerback Jaylon Johnson to a big contract extension this offseason after a career year. 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.
Does that make sense?
PFF does not value Johnson and Byard as much as Ryan Poles did in the offseason. The signing of Byard was criticized by several analysts and called one of the worst mistakes of the offseason.
The PFF rankings are sobering for a team that must rely on its defense to win games in Caleb Williams’ rookie season. As we’ve seen with Roquan Smith, linebackers don’t save seasons. The Bears need an elite secondary or pass rush if they want to make a Super Bowl push. If the Bears don’t add defensive line help, the team will either prove the preseason disrespect wrong or they’ll miss out on the playoffs.
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