Brad Biggs details impact that returns of Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Johnson could make for Bears defense

On the Mully & Haugh Show, Tribune reporter Brad Biggs discussed the Bears’ health. There are a few concerns on that front, but the Bears should be getting nickelback Kyler Gordon and cornerback Jaylon Johnson back from injury soon. What sort of impact will they have? Biggs also looked ahead to the Bears-Steelers game Sunday at Soldier Field.

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Big Z. Morning, Brad. Morning, boys. What’s going on? Well, you’re all over it. You’ve got the big story, the uh the Bears taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. We know of uh the weird success the Bears have had against the Steelers and also the uh stranger success that Aaron Rodgers has had against the Bears. And it looks like he’s going to try to play with the uh with this just a minor break in the left wrist. It’s nothing. It won’t impact him at all. Uh they want to make sure he’s comfortable. He’s scheduled to practice today. Uh man, he was he was his trolling self, I thought, yesterday as he talked about Chicago and the and the great rivalry and how he changed it, etc. Um I don’t know. There’s there’s always going to be drama with that guy, so it doesn’t surprise me. But uh but what was your takeaway from all that you heard yesterday up at Alice Hall? Yeah, I I think uh for starters with Rogers, it sounds like uh he’ll maybe try to be limited in practice today or perhaps better than that and we’ll see um where it goes from there. I wouldn’t expect final word on Rogers availability at the at the absolute soonest comes Friday afternoon, right? Maybe they take it up to game time. I don’t know. Um, you know, whether he plays or not, you he doesn’t move around like he used to. Not even close. Mason Rudolph doesn’t move around real well. I don’t understand the idea that the Steelers offense is going to change a whole lot. Um, Rogers perhaps gets the ball out a little bit quicker than Rudolph or anyone else that plays the position on the planet. Uh, but I don’t know that that’s going to necessarily change how you go about your defensive plan. Notable yesterday that, uh, the top three linebackers missed practice. TJ Edwards still out, uh, Tummaine Edmonds with a groin yesterday, and Noah Su with an elbow injury. um potentially cause for concern. But the first thing I do when I see a guy pop up on the injury report that I didn’t see hurt in the game is, okay, well, did I miss something? How much did he play in the game? Edmonds was on the field for every defensive snap at Minnesota and Noah Su was out there for 53 of 55. So, I’m going to be uh glass half full, optimistic about their situations here on Thursday morning as we hopefully get a little bit more information uh early this afternoon. And Brad, I know what you’re saying about Rogers, but I think the difference is not just in the release or the offense, but the accuracy and the judgment and the that you’re you’re more dangerous as a passing game if you have a guy who knows exactly where he wants the ball to go and can get it there with more frequency. That’s that’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds. Well, I agree, but like people have asked like, “How does the offense change?” Well, I like they’re not changing the offense. No, no, they’re not going to change. Yeah, they’re not going to change schematically how they’re going to attack the Bears. I don’t think that’s an issue. I am curious what you think. You talked about the injury report. Jaylen Johnson, Kyler Gordon. If you had, you know, an educated guess on which guy would be more likely to come back first. Can you make one? Do you know enough to to do that? Because I’d be surprised if both come back on Sunday. And I wonder if the difference is Jaylen Johnson coming back from surgery, Kylie Gordon injury. What do you think? I I just I I don’t know that we know enough. I I I’m not going to be surprised by anything. So, if they’re somehow both out there Sunday, I’m not going to be surprised. But I just I feel like too often we sort of play this um guessing game with injuries and you’re it that’s like put trying to put together a puzzle and and twothirds of the pieces or more are missing. It’s really uh hard to to do. But um here’s here’s what we won’t here’s another thing we won’t know. They’ve got uh data for both of these guys in terms of how they move on the field. Okay? They track that stuff all the time. Uh how they move running forward, how they’re moving going laterally, how they move uh going in reverse. And they’ve got that data, just tons of it, right? They’ve got data from the weight room. Uh how strong is this body part? And they can compare all of this to where they were pre-injjury to where they were, you know, when they’re known to be healthy and get an idea of where they’re at. So they hopefully can be in a position where they do return that they they don’t feel like there’s a heightened uh risk of reinjury which is certainly has happened with Gordon with Johnson at least the player tried to say it was you know unrelated to the first injury that cost him you know all of training camp in preeason. Who who knows? I just know they’ve both missed uh a ton of time and uh the Bears certainly want to be on the um conservative side of bringing them back with seven games to go like like don’t rush him back if you want them for the stretch run uh without feeling really good about him. Yeah, it’s good stuff. I I would say, Brad, that when it comes to the injury report, especially on a Wednesday, uh we’ve learned to to hold judgment till later in the week. Um is there anybody on this list? And I’m not talking about the rest guys, but I’m curious, is there anybody that surprised you on the injured list? Did you know about Dolman with the knee? Um, are you surprised that Stephvenson was able to be limited? Do you think um, Brisker could be out if he’s out? I mean, is there any of these injuries that is surprising you at all that you’ll be looking closer at today? We lose Brad. No, I think the question was just that damn good. You froze him in his tracks. Would freeze anyone. You froze him in his tracks. He’s going to check his What about you? What do you think of that? Well, I I think the Tyreek Stevenson the regularity with which he appears on the injury report is a bit of a concern. Yeah. The one I I I I honestly shrug a little bit and again don’t have all the information. Jaquan Brisker is a regular appearer, right? Or he was out with that shoulder, so it makes sense. Well, does it he seems to be on there a lot, Molly Brad? Yeah, I with uh with Brisker, we we’ll see. I I would think he’s aiming to be in a position to be ready for the game. Here here’s my question. Uh, and it’s not necessarily related to Brisker’s health, but when Kyler Gordon is back, whether that’s Sunday or Black Friday or the Packers game that follows the the Black Friday adventure in Philadelphia, whenever that game is for Gordon, and Gordon’s up to full speed as the nickel because that’s what he’s going to be. He’s the highest paid nickel corner in the league. Um, Kyler Gordon has or excuse me, CJ Gardner Johnson has been a nice addition. He’s not playing to the level uh that he’s going to Wally Pip a guy they just paid. You sure? Are you sure? Yeah. I mean, I know I know what they’re paying him, but how do you ignore the last three games on tape? I’m Well, I’m not ignoring them if you’ll let me finish. Do they consider a dime roll for Gardenner Johnson, which they’ve been in about 9% of the time, so that’s not that much. And then look to expand opportunities for him by perhaps using him in place of Brisker at times. I’m not talking about a full-time switch or anything like that, but do they have certain situations where they like Gardner Johnson where they want to get him on the field some? You’re not going to take Bard off the field? Uh he’s been outstanding for him this season, but I’m just I sort of wonder like if you’re thinking of ways to get that guy on the field when Gordon’s back is the nickel, is that one of them? uh take cutting into the playing time a little bit of Jaquan Brisk or TJ Edwards because he’s not back yet either. You could use you could conceivably Nickel. Yeah, it’s more of a dime approach. You have one linebacker and you’ve got Gordon and CJ Johnson on the on the field. But Brad and and this is just me spitballing. I I think I think that Chanty Gardner Johnson has been good enough at Nickel to leave him there. And I know what they’re paying Kyler Gordon, but because of that, couldn’t they move him into a a regular cornerback spot? I think he can play that better. I’ll just finish the thought quickly. I think he can play that better than Chanty Gardner Johnson can play safety. In other words, I think he would be a better fit at a It wouldn’t be ideal. He’s more versatile. Yes, he’s a better player in terms of being able to play a corner than maybe two of the corners you got playing right now. I they they could they could roll with Gordon out there. He’s just he’s missed so much time. He hasn’t practiced it that much. I I don’t know. I There’s going to be options, though. They’re going to find ways to use uh CJ Gardenner Johnson, who it was out there every snap uh this past week, it’ll be, you know, with when they run into more sophisticated passing offenses. Okay. when they’re not going against JJ McCarthy and a rookie in Jackson Dart, are there opponents that can take advantage of Gardenner Johnson in pass coverage? Right. Um, a little bit because he he’s really he’s he’s very pesky around the line of scrimmage. your concern is if you’ve got them in coverage too much and you know the Bears have been playing some teams that you know aren’t real good throwing the ball right now. It’s a great point. It’s really good point. I want to let you finish that point before I ask you another question. So offensively, Brad, moving to the other side of the ball, the Steelers are great at rushing the passer. They have I think only two other teams have sacked the quarterback more often than they have. If you’re the Bears and you’re looking at, you know, wanting to establish the run, does that change your approach? Are you getting more runheavy? How are you going to help Theo Benedict? And uh what is the plan to combat TJ Watt, who could pass his brother’s all-time sack mark in this game with him in the booth? Well, maybe that’s why he’s got like his fifth or sixth Steelers game this season. Uh JJ, I guess they they keep sending that crew to cover. Uh the Steelers, it’s a home broadcast. Yeah, it’s a little bit of everything. You’re going to uh obviously try to run the ball and the Steelers um haven’t been great against the run this season. I think when you look at the numbers overall in terms of uh what that looks like, it’s not the kind of Steeler run defense that you think of. Now, I think it’s been a little bit better of late. Uh, but they played the Bengals last week, right? You know, they I’ll tell you what, they did do a nice job against the Indianapolis Colts and Jonathan Taylor. Um, so you’re going to run the ball. You’re going to uh slide protect or give some chip help to Theo. You may have to do that at times with, you know, Darnell Wright based on what the defense presents in front of you because you’re right, they get after the quarterback and they got a lot of different guys that can do it. Nick Herbig, um, Wisconsin guy has been fantastic this season. They’ve got Alex Heismith. Uh, they can come from, uh, all directions and you you need to be mindful of that. So, so you run the ball. uh you’re smart, you try to get in um manageable down and distance situations and uh I think you can take a little bit of that pass rush away from the Steelers because when the Steelers get after the quarterback, that’s when they start getting some of the takeaways. And they’ve been they’ve been really good at that this year in terms of takeaways. Now, their ratio or margin isn’t fantastic because on the flip side, they’ve had some uh giveaways themselves, but you look at their big wins this season, New England and Indianapolis, and I believe they were plus nine in those two games. I think they had a plus five and a plus four with takeaways. And so, it’s easy to see why they were successful. So, it’s a 6 and4 Pittsburgh team that like the Bears, you could say some of the success has been predicated on uh the ability to get the takeaways. This segment with Brad Bigs is sponsored by Estwing Professional tools made in the USA for over 100 years, estwing.com. And Brad, I’m curious, what’s your take on their running game? the um you think of the Steelers as a defensive running football team that can score points, but they’re they’re not running in the same fashion they have in previous years. No, they don’t. You know, yeah, they they just haven’t been great uh running the football, especially, you know, they they were okay last week against Cincinnati. I think they averaged four yards a pop. Um they got blown out by the Chargers the week before. Um, and that win over the Colts that I talked about, they barely ran the ball. Um, so yeah, that has it. Now, Jaylen Warren, I think, is an effective running back though, and he’s averaging about 4.4 yards a carry. So, um, what ails that group overall, I don’t I’d imagine the line plays probably been a little bit, uh, inconsistent. Uh and and that’ll be interesting because as we know the Bears haven’t been great against the run this season. They’ve had some games where they’ve been better than others and if they’re in a situation where they’re playing, you know, nickel uh predominantly that that make that can make it a little bit more challenging uh to defend the run. So we will uh we’ll see. Brad, do you plan on asking Richard High Totower, the special teams coordinator, about the Vikings special teams coordinator, Matt Daniels, basically making Devin Duven’s 56-yard return sound pretty pedestrian, like anybody could do it, which I thought was a show of disrespect to what the Bears accomplished. Yeah, I I mean, I don’t know that I’ll ask about that. I I think the way it was blocked up, Dubet didn’t have to do anything special. And that’s not a knock on Dubet. Um I think what that does is it underscores the fact that this special teams is is 11 on 11 and the other 10 um really did a nice job of setting the situation up for Duivere, you know. So the the the problem for the Vikings special teams coach is he had like his 11 guys were kind of washed out of that play. Uh if say three of them aren’t may maybe it’s a 27 yard return not a 56 yard return. So uh yeah that um quote was a little odd. Um, but I I don’t I’m focused on the Steelers and they got seven games ahead of them in a big spot. What a special teams coach says. Uh, in another place, uh, that’s I I’ve got way more on my plate today than than I can handle that, I think. Great stuff, Brad. Brad, thank you, Big Z. Great stuff. Good luck attacking that plate. Yep. Have a great day,