Bears Inactives: Latest news in the secondary doesn’t bode well for Chicago’s chances of containing Jaxon Smith-Njigba
The Chicago Bears have ruled out rookie cornerback Malik Muhammad II, leaving the secondary dangerously thin on the outside ahead of matchup against Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
The Chicago Bears are less than 90 minutes away from kickoff against the Seattle Seahawks and all signs point toward this being an exciting night of football when these two teams take the field.
The Bears will, of course, have their work cut out for them going up against the defending Super Bowl champs in Seattle’s home stadium and the latest injury news on Chicago’s sideline is going to make Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba very excited.
Chicago Bears rule out Malik Muhammad II among six inactives
The Bears have released the final inactives list for Sunday’s game. The biggest takeaway is that All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons will be active tonight making his Bears debut, as expected. The big loss for the defense, however, is rookie cornerback Malik Muhammad II.
Earlier today, the Bears elected not to elevate a defensive back from the practice squad, a sign that Muhammad would potentially play after being questionable with a toe injury. Instead, Muhammad is inactive, leaving Chicago’s secondary dangerously thin on the outside. The Bears will head into the game with Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, Clark Phillips III, and Josh Blackwell as the options on the outside with Kyler Gordon in the slot.
That’s a tough look going up against one of the league’s most dangerous wide receivers in Smith-Njigba.
“I think he does a really good job of creating access on the line of scrimmage,” Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said of Smith-Njigba. “I think he does a really good job of creating separation at the top of the route. I think what makes him exceptional is his ability with run after catch. He can take a short throw and it’s 40, 50 yards later before somebody is finally getting him down on the ground… You look at him down there in the red area and, he wins the one-on-one matchups. And so that’s what all the good receivers do. And he’s got exceptional hands. He has a lot of catches in a contested environment. He’s really good at that.”
This is going to be a major challenge for Chicago’s secondary and being without Muhammad doesn’t help considering Johnson and Stevenson have each allowed over a 100.0 passer rating in coverage this season.
The good news is that Smith-Njigba does the majority of his work out of the slot with 506 of his league-leading 867 yards coming from that alignment, along with five of his eight touchdowns. That would mean, in a man-to-man coverage, Gordon would ideally be lining up against Smith-Njigba. And with Simmons out there on the defensive line, Gordon can be used more in coverage than as a extra pass rusher like we’ve seen the last two weeks.
Even still, this is going to be a massive challenge for everyone involved on this defense. Hopefully the secondary doesn’t like Smith-Njigba take over this game. One piece of good news for this secondary, Seahawks’ speedy wide receiver Rashid Shaheed is also inactive, so that’s one less threat to prepare for.
As for the rest of the inactives, the Bears are also sitting out RB Kyle Monangai (toe), QB Case Keenum (emergency third QB), DT Jordan van den Berg, DT Jayden Loving, and OL Jordan McFadden.
