While Chicago’s rookies flourished in the season opener, starters Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson must sharpen their coverage to fix a leaky defensive backfield.
Carolina Panthers quarterback threw for 361 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in the team's 59-37 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen will have his hands full trying to clean up the mistakes that happened in the Week 1 performance. Chicago allowed seven different Panthers to catch passes, including wide receiver Jalen Coker who led the game with eight receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
Bears starting cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson had disappointing starts to their 2026 season. Johnson gave up five receptions on seven targets for 127 yards, and Stevenson allowed four catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns.
"Yeah, I mean, line up again," Allen said on his message to his cornerbacks. "Let's go. Week 2, you know what I mean? Like, we have to be man enough to admit and see where we fell short, all right? What can we do to improve our performance? What can we do to maybe improve our preparation, those types of things? And then let's focus on playing outstanding this week, because that one's done. Let's move on to this one and let's play better as a group."
The boundary cornerbacks may have struggled, but that wasn't the case for everyone in the Bears' secondary. Veteran defensive back Cam Lewis and rookies Dillon Thieneman and Malik Muhammad.
After Bears head coach Ben Johnson reviewed the tape, he felt like Jaylon Johnson and Stevenson could have played better than they did, but he also mentioned that they are resilient individuals and will bounce back.
Johnson was far more complimentary to the other starting defensive backs.
“Dillon had a great start to his career. I thought he was all over the field. He’s one of those guys throughout camp that he would make mistakes, but rarely makes the same mistake twice. He’s done a great job in the open field making sure he’s getting tackles. Ended up being our leading tackler yesterday. ... Kudos to Cam Lewis, really, next to him as well, because he went into the day not even knowing he was going to start for us at safety. We worked out Xavier Woods that morning and when we decided to make him inactive, Cam became our starter at safety and played really, really well, so just wanted to throw him a shoutout. You brought up Malik Muhammad, he played really good football for his first day as well: sticky in coverage, competed his tail off, fearless. I was really proud of what he put on tape.”
Among defensive backs with at least five targets in Week 1, Muhammad finished with the second-lowest passer rating allowed (39.8). The former fourth-round draft pick gave up five receptions on nine targets for 67 yards and intercepted Young and broke up one pass. Muhammad also shadowed Tetairoa McMillan on a fourth-and-3 play late in the third quarter, forcing an incompletion and turnover on downs.
Despite Lewis not knowing exactly what position he would officially play on gameday, the veteran defensive back allowed just two receptions for 20 yards and finished with six total tackles.
Jaylon Johnson and Stevenson must improve their play to match the rest of the secondary, especially with the Minnesota Vikings coming to Soldier Field on Sunday. Chicago's NFC North rival may have a question at quarterback after starter Kyler Murray sustained a concussion in the Week 1 win over the Green Bay Packers, but the team still has wide receiver Justin Jefferson. He caught eight passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns.
"Justin has always been, I would say, top one or two I would say since probably his second year in the league," Jaylon Johnson said to reporters on Wednesday. "So, I just mean, explosive wide receiver. Guy that makes plays, makes really good catches, runs good routes. I don't think there is a flaw to his game, so, I mean, just somebody that you look forward to going against."
