‘He was ready to play’ — Kyler Gordon’s return was a massive for the Bears after many questioned if this moment would ever happen
Chicago Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon was all over the place in his first game back in action after dealing with an injury situation that frustrated everyone involved.
When the Chicago Bears made the decision to activate slot cornerback Kyler Gordon ahead of Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, you could just tell a big game was on the way for #6, even with his limited reps.
Gordon took home the game ball on Sunday after playing like a menace all game long. Every time he was on the field, he was making some kind of impact and did the bulk of his damage as a pass rusher.
There’s a reason why Dennis Allen was so high on having Gordon back in the fold. He’s a big part of this scheme and having him back changes everything going forward for this defense.
Kyler Gordon was all over the place for the Bears on Sunday
The last time the Bears saw Gordon in action was in the playoffs last season, and honestly, they haven’t seen much of him at all until a few weeks ago. It was a bizarre situation for everyone involved, but everyone knew things could be fixed once Gordon proved he was healthy again.
“He was ready to play,” head coach Ben Johnson said after the game about Gordon. “We had a week, last week, that was probably different than most just in terms of not knowing who was going to be active and who was going to be playing for us. I talked with Kyler yesterday morning and said ‘Hey, I think we’re ready to activate you. Are you ready to go?’ and he said ‘Absolutely.’ He sure enough was.”
In his first game back in action, Gordon recorded three sacks (which now makes him the team-leader in sacks this season) along with three tackles for a loss and two forced fumbles. Again, that was his impact on a limited snap count, not to mention the contributions he provided on special teams as well.
“He’s so twitchy, he’s really hard to block as a blitzer, tight in coverage also,” Johnson added. “We have to make sure we keep him on that right track. We tried to limit his role just a little bit, just making sure he was in good football shape. But, those snaps he had were huge ones for us today.”
It was a long road back for Kyler Gordon to reach this point
Saying this was a frustrating situation is putting it lightly. This is an injury that Gordon has been working to come back from for over a year, and one that forced him to miss a total of 20 games over the last two seasons, not to mention the entirety of the offseason.
Calf injuries can be tricky, and this was certainly a complicated one for Gordon to figure out. It took time, and nearly all of the patience the Bears were willing to give him, but now the results of his hard work are paying off for everyone involved.
“As much as it sucked, it was a nice little check up for myself just to reinforce all of the things that I believe in,” Gordon said. “Keeping that strong mental, keeping positive, keep grinding. Those little small details that. Being intentional and reinforcing that positive thought in my head.”
There was a legit possibility going into the season that we had seen the last of Gordon with the Chicago Bears. That’s how complicated things got. His extended absence going back to last season made it hard to earn any trust with this coaching staff and the more this situation continued the more the talk increased about potentially moving on.
“It is what it is,” Gordon said about the all of the noise, both internally and externally. “I can’t control what someone else says. But, at the end of the day, I’m going to go out there and do my job and to the best of my ability. And be the best player in the league at my spot. Unfortunately, it is what it is.”
Fortunately, Gordon made his way back onto the field for the Bears and reminded everyone the kind of player he can be for this defense. He’s a game-changer and it’ll only get better in the weeks ahead.
