This stat is most concerning for Chicago Bears CB Kyler Gordon

Earlier in this offseason we noted that while Chicago Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon allowed plenty of yards in his rookie season, there is a track record of rookie cornerbacks struggling in their first season and then rebounding to have a solid career. However, we also saw that while there were cornerbacks who gave up yards at the same rate, there were not many of them who had a similar completion rate allowed.

Kyler Gordon gave up too many completions for the Chicago Bears

They were giving up big plays but held down the catches. Kyler Gordon allowed a 76.8% completion rate. That is the 13th worst rate in the NFL since Pro Football Reference has been tracking the stat since 2018. There are a few names to point to as similarities, but overall, this is not the same group as yards allowed.

Darius Slay allowed a 76.7% completion rate in 2020, which is slightly better than Kyler Gordon, but can still give us hope. Also, K'Waun Williams, and Desmond King had seasons equally as bad in their career. They ended up with fine careers, but they were slot players, and did not stick on the outside.

The rest of the names are not names you want to see. More than that, these were down years in the long careers of these players. Those three did not allow a completion rate that high when they were rookies.

Kyler Gordon ranks fifth amongst rookies in completion rate allowed. When you look at names that have allowed more than 70% of their targets to be completed you get the following name

Nate Hobbs, Jeff Okudah, Michael Carter, Darnay Holmes, Kendall Sheffield, Bryce Hall, Troy Pride, Keith Taylor, and Marco Wilson

There are very few names who had a similar rookie season to Kyler Gordon to bounce back. Some of these players did not even get a second chance. On the flip side, when you look at players who had a completion rate allowed below 60%, you get the following.

LJarius Sneed, Jaylon Johnson, Trevon Diggs, Sauce Gardner, Trent McDuffie, Tariq Woolen, Denzel Ward, Patrick Surtain, Jamel Dean, and JC Jackson

This is a who's who of talented names and cornerbacks who went onto to have successful seasons. It is interesting to see that Diggs, Dean and Johnson in particular had did allow yards in their rookie season, but they also were shutting down a lot of passes.

You can blame the pass rush, and it was as bad as you can get, but Gordon also did not do enough as a rookie. He was allowing too many completions, and when he was allowing them, they were going for big yards. It would be one thing if he had a high completion rate, and antother if he allowed plenty of yards. Allowing both shows that you deserve some of the blame, and that has to concern Chicago Bears fans.