Bears add some much-needed reinforcements to the Week 3 roster as the team tries to offset several impactful injuries on defense
Help is on the way.
The Chicago Bears’ defense will be heavily short-handed in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, but the team added some extra help to the roster at two positions of need going into Sunday’s game.
Linebacker Carl Jones Jr. and cornerback Dallis Flowers were elevated off the practice squad and onto the game-day roster. Practice squad players are allowed to be elevated three times per season. Sunday’s game will be Jones’ second elevation, and Flowers’ first of the season.
The additions of those two players will help make up slightly for the losses of Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Jones, and T.J. Edwards, who were all ruled out going into the weekend.
Bears will need all the help they can get to defend the Cowboys’ offense
This has all the potential to be a high-scoring affair and even a potential shootout if Ben Johnson’s offense can clean up the mistakes to put more points on the board. Along with all the Bears’ injuries on defense, the Cowboys are without starting cornerback DaRon Bland, and then added Trevon Diggs to the injury report on Saturday with a knee injury. Diggs is now questionable.
On Chicago’s side of things, the unit is coming off a 52-point game in Week 2 and will be tasked with defending quarterback Dak Prescott throwing to wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, a tough matchup for the secondary, even before all the injuries.
Tyrique Stevenson, Nahshon Wright, and Nick McCloud are expected to start at cornerback with Josh Blackwell and Flowers serving as backups. Stevenson is looking to bounce back as the team’s top available corner after allowing 97 yards and one touchdown in coverage last week.
“That’s the beautiful thing about that position is, you have to have a short memory within a game, because you’re going to get beat and then you’re going to have to turn the page real quick,” Johnson said of Stevenson. “He’s not a guy that lacks for confidence. I know he’s going to come up, he’s going to press, he’s going to challenge, and he’s going to get right back on that horse.”
At the linebacker position, Noah Sewell is set to start again in place of Edwards alongside Tremaine Edmunds, with Ruben Hyppolite II, D’Marco Jackson, and Jones serving as backups. It’s worth noting Jackson is questionable with a hamstring injury of his own. In terms of the starters, the team is highly confident in Sewell’s ability to produce as a starter.
“He’s the epitome of a linebacker,” Johnson said of Sewell. “He’s a little bit of a throwback in this era, too, really physical, not afraid to see ball get ball. He strikes with aggression, gets off blocks. He’ll shoot a gap if he sees it open. I think he’s been a guy that really from the spring time, to camp, I’ve been pleased with how he’s progressed.”
The already tough challenge for this unit continues to get worse. However, this unit will have to step up significantly if Chicago wants to come out of Week 3 with its first win of the season.
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