Overall, last season, the Chicago Bears had a middle-of-the-pack pass defense. Not particularly bad in any area, though more interceptions might have been nice. It's the run defense that was bad, allowing the fifth-most yards per game (136.3) and 4.8 yards per carry (tied for third-highest in the league).
A closer look shows the Bears had two cornerbacks who finished with a top-15 overall grade from Pro Football Focus last year. Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon were back-to-back, at No. 12 and 13, respectively. Both players had top-20 coverage grades at their position.
One of the Bears' perimeter corners, and their primary slot corner, were pretty good in 2024. So where did opposing passing offenses find success against them last season?
According to Pro Football Focus, despite better success against them than you'd expect, Johnson and Gordon were targeted a total of 108 times last season. The Bears' other primary cornerback was targeted 81 times all by himself. That's called putting a bullseye on someone, thinking a lot of success can be had.
Bears' opponents put an obvious bullseye on one CB last season
According to PFF, Bears' cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was the fourth-most targeted cornerback in the NFL on all routes last season (19.1 percent). When lined up on the outside, as he most often was (708 snaps last season), he was targeted at the second-highest rate in the league (19.74 percent). His coverage grades, 58.4 overall and 59.1 when lined up on the outside, reflected why he has been targeted so much. When lined up on the outside, he faced the third-most targets in the league (77).
To be fair, Stevenson also had the lowest completion rate allowed among the 10 cornerbacks who were targeted at the highest rate of their coverage snaps in both of the aforementioned situations.
Read more: PFF puts Bears quarterback Caleb Williams on most obvious list for 2025
Stevenson was also targeted at the seventh-highest rate in the league on "late downs" (presumably meaning third and fourth down) and in the red zone last year. His PFF coverage grades were not bad in either situation, though (67.4 on late downs, 78.2 in the red zone).
Last year's sheer target volume for Stevenson (81 targets, according to PFF) was less than it was for him as a rookie in 2023 (110 targets against over 16 games). But with Johnson opposite him and Gordon operating in the slot, he will be seen as a path of less resistance among Bears' cornerbacks, and the rate of targets he sees is not going to ebb very much regardless of how much (if) he improves in 2025.