5 Chicago Bears defensive building blocks for future

The Chicago Bears’ defense is awful. They have holes across the board and will have to address this side of the football heavily in the offseason. Still, they do not need to replace all 11 players. They still have some core pieces, and if they can grow from that, they can start to build.

Who are the five building blocks that should be locked into jobs next season?

5. Chicago Bears should try to extend Jaylon Johnson

The Chicago Bears shut down Jaylon Johnson, but they should have seen enough from him this season to know that he is a building block. There is a catch, and his ceiling does not appear to be a number one, elite cornerback. He is not the follow-receivers-everywhere and shut-things-down type of cornerback.

However, when he plays his side, he plays zone, and he defends the sidelines, this is not the cornerback to test. His strengths make him a high-end number two cornerback, if not a low-end number one cornerback. You cannot skimp around him assuming he can lock down big targets, but in a zone defense like the Chicago Bears, he is a great fit.

The next question comes down to his contract. He is obviously going to want a payday and will be a free agent at the end of 2023 if the team does not extend him this summer. They do not want to enter that situation with someone that they view as the future.

Still, they do not want to set the market on a cornerback that we just admitted is not in that tier of player. The Chicago Bears should hope, try and look for Jaylon Johnson to be an extended team member, but it is not quite a lock, yet.