The Chicago Bears two young cornerbacks have been struggling with passing off routes
With Jaylon Johnson and Buster Skrine out, the Chicago Bears have had to lean on their depth with Duke Shelley and Kindle Vildor. The two are seeing their first playing time for the first time at the same time, so you would assume that there are growing pains.
This showed up multiple times against the Minnesota Vikings. After scoring a touchdown early in which the two failed to communicate and pass off a route, the Vikings went at this a few times and had success.
The Jaguars do not have the offense that Minnesota has, but there was a glimpse of the same issue in the play below.
Below you see that D.J. Chark is in the slot, and Keelan Cole is just outside of him. Chark runs deep while Cole sits short. The issue is that both cornerbacks sit with Cole and Chark runs free into the open field.
Fortunately for the Bears, they had a safety there over the top to make a play. It also was Mike Glennon who made a poor pass. You can say that this is a good coaching adjustment to provide overhead security for those two.
Still, this is becoming a common occurrence. It is always tough to speculate without being in the meeting room which player is blowing the coverage, or if it is the same player every time or not.
Still, Jaylon Johnson was healthy the last time the Bears played Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers carved them up. If it is Vildor and Shelley out there, Rodgers will be attacking that matchup early and often. They will need to act quickly to avoide embarrassment.