Breaking:Chicago Bears auxiliary playing at first class level as season slows down

The Chicago Bears secondary is hitting its stride as the season winds down in……

LAKE FOREST, Ill., — At the center of the Chicago Bears’ recent success, winning four of their last six, has been the rise of the defense. And part of that has been the play of Chicago’s secondary, which is playing like one of the best units in the league.

The Bears are finally healthy in the secondary with four starters Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, Eddie Jackson, Jackson Brisker and nickel Kyler Gordon manning down that back unit. They also have been rotating rookie Terell Smith in, giving them some depth against passing attacks in the league. While the stats aren’t eye-popping by any means, they pass the eye test with their play as of late.

“Definitely. I feel our stats are showing it — just from what we started at to now, with all the interceptions, with us tackling, with us being one of the best secondaries in the nation,” Stevenson said. “I feel we’ve been showing that for the last five through seven weeks of the season. We finally got comfortable playing with each other and we’re out there dominating.

On Sunday, the secondary had what was probably one of their best games of the season with the secondary combining for five pass breakups plus a sack by Gordon. It felt like they were all over the field and playing tight in coverage.

Johnson and Jackson are the veterans in this secondary but the four others who are seeing significant playing time are either rookies or in their second year. And each one of those players appears to be getting better including Gordon who is developing into one of the best nickel corners in the game. Gordon has made a big jump from year one to two, as his Brisker and it’s something the Bears are hoping for with both Stevenson and Smith next season.

We see the biggest jump from rookies, when we play them a lot in that first year, you can see a huge jump because of the experience in the first year, in the second year,” Matt Eberflus said. “It happens sometimes right away in the second year, and sometimes it just takes a little. Obviously, he dealt with he injury early, he came back from that and he was pretty strong since that point. We’ve seen him jump just like we have a lot of our other second-year players.”

With a good young core back there featuring four of the five being in year one or year two, having a veteran presence back there also helps. That’s where Jackson comes in.