NEWSLETTER
It turns out the hand injury Kyler Gordon suffered against the Packers in Week 1 is serious enough to keep him out for a while. The Chicago Bears put the second-year cornerback on injured reserve on Thursday. And in a corresponding move, they have signed fellow cornerback Greg Stroman Jr. off their practice squad and onto the active roster.
I spent a good chunk of the early part of my week fearing the worst for Gordon after realizing he was dealing with a potentially serious hand injury that popped up in the second half of the Bears’ Week 1 loss to the Packers. And while I felt as if Wednesday would present some watershed moment in which the rubber meets the road, it didn’t. The Bears made no designation about Gordon’s future and made it seem like it could possibly be a week-to-week thing. As it turns out, it isn’t a week-to-week ordeal. Unfortunately, Gordon will miss at least the next four games on the Bears’ schedule. And it won’t be pretty once you realize who is on the schedule.
In the Bears’ upcoming contests, they’ll face star NFL playmakers such as Mike Evans (Week 2 at Buccaneers), Patrick Mahomes (Week 3 at Chiefs), Russell Wilson (Week 4 vs Broncos), and Terry McLaurin (Week 5 at Commanders). The soonest Gordon can return to the Bears lineup is in Week 6 against the Minnesota Vikings. If Gordon can make it back by then, his return will be met by Vikings stud receiver Justin Jefferson. So, yeah, get well soon, Kyler. We’ll miss you while you’re gone.
What can the Bears do without Kyler Gordon?
In Gordon’s absence, Josh Blackwell looks to be the next man up on the depth chart. But he was also on Wednesday’s injury report, so we’ll take a wait-and-see approach before we pencil him into the lineup. Maybe Terell Smith, who was pushing fellow rookie Tyrique Stevenson hard during training camp, will get some reps in the slot.
Adding Greg Stroman Jr. to their mix of cornerbacks helps with the back-end depth of the position chart, but does little else. Don’t get me wrong. Maybe Stroman can climb the depth chart, make some plays, and earn a spot on the roster for the rest of the season. I’m open to any and all possibilities when given a blank slate like this, even if they’re on the delusional end of the spectrum. But on a more realistic side of things, the Bears will need to get creative with their defensive scheme.
Perhaps this means more blitzing. Pro Football Focus’ Sam Manson shared a team pressure production and blitz rate chart for Week 1 and the Bears are in the bottom 5 in blitzing. That number should change for Chicago in Week 2. Even if Kyler Gordon was healthy, I’d still be pounding the table to ramp up the pressure. Simply put, this team can’t be a bottom-5 blitz rate team and allow opposing offenses to pick ’em apart while in a vanilla base set.
In the end, I can’t believe it took just past the midway point of the second week of the NFL’s 2023 season for me to find a new level of annoyance. Let me be clear. That Kyler Gordon has an injury isn’t what is doing the trick. Instead, it was Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus playing coy in discussing Gordon’s injury and status leading up to the announcement of the IR stint. There was no reason to play mind games with Tampa Bay and put him on the injury report with a DNP next to his name when you likely knew you’d put him on injured reserve at some point this week.
If only Eberflus and the Bears put as much energy into scheming, game-planning, and executing last week against the Packers as they do in misdirection campaigns maybe we’d be singing a different tune. But I digress.
