The start of the season for Kyler Gordon had been rather rocky, but there are signs that the Chicago Bears’ top pick from the past draft is starting to find his footing. Of course, you know that the New England Patriots are going to test him, though.
Gordon had his best game of the season against the Washington Commanders. Some of that can be attributed to the Commander’s brutal passing attack, but at the same time if you watched the tape you saw that things were slowing down for Gordon.
Is Chicago Bears rookie Kyler Gordon ready?
He made a couple of huge plays, including a touchdown-saving tackle, and showed that he should not be tested as often. Still, when you look at the New England Patriots, their top pass catcher just so happens to be their slot wideout.
Jakobi Meyers lines up in the slot 69% of the time. He actually only lines up on the side of Jaylon Johnson 9% coming into this game, so those two will almost never face off. This will put a lot on Gordon.
Meyers is not an overwhelming physical threat, but he is a sharp route runner. He will get a rookie like Gordon shifting one way, then break him off the other way. Beyond that, the Patriots know how to scheme things up, and they will likely have multiple players running through the zone of the slot cornerback to see if his eyes will stick to anything.
So far this season Jakobi Meyers is averaging 2.74 yards per route run, which is up with names such as Stefon Diggs, Tyreek Hill, and Justin Jefferson. He is not quite that, but the team knows how to find him and he knows how to get open.
On the flip side, Kyler Gordon is still allowing 2.5 yards per route run against him. So, this is not quite the same feel as Justin Jefferson against the Chicago Bears secondary, but the presence of Jakobi Meyers gives the Patriots a successful slot wide receiver that they can test Kyler Gordon.
This will be a huge game for Gordon to show that things are slowing down for him and that he can start to hang as the matchups get tougher. If he struggles against Meyers, the Chicago Bears have to think he just caught a break against a bad Commanders passing attack last week.