After a disastrous ending to their Week 8 loss, the Bears have made a temporary change in the secondary. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson will work as a backup on Sunday, as detailed by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. 
Stevenson’s actions before the Commanders’ game-winning Hail Mary last week – along with his mishandling of his assignment on the play itself – have been a major talking point over the past several days. How the team would react was a key storyline during the week, and ESPN’s Courtney Cronin notes discussion took place between Chicago’s veteran players and coaches to decide on a course of action (video link). In the end, the Bears elected to demote Stevenson on a one-week basis.
The second-year cover man started all 16 of his appearances as a rookie, proving to be a key figure on one of the league’s best secondaries. Stevenson’s 2024 defensive snap share stood at 97% entering Sunday, so his absence from the starting lineup will be notable (especially with slot corner Kyler Gordon unavailable due to injury). Terell Smith got the start ahead of Stevenson to begin Chicago’s contest against Arizona.
The Bears informed Stevenson of their decision to demote him during practice this week, as first reported by Jay Glazer of Fox Sports (video link). The 24-year-old reacted by departing practice, although Cronin clarifies Stevenson returned shortly thereafter. He will operate on a rotational basis defensively while also potentially chipping in on special teams before returning to first-team duties next week.
Stevenson entered the league with high expectations as a second-rounder and he delivered on them with four interceptions and 16 pass deflections during his rookie campaign. The Miami product notched one pick along with six pass breakups through his first six contests this season, one in which his play in coverage along with discipline-related matters have remained a talking point. That will no doubt continue to be the case in the wake of his demotion, although team and player will hope to avoid a repeat of any situations similar to that of last week.
Stephenson is playing after Terrell Smith got hurt. However, Reddy Steward already forced a fumble playing slot and deserves to be playing regularly even when Gordon returns. Hope Poles trades Stephenson after the game and builds for next year, because this team is toast in 2024.
Yeah, there’s no way unless he’s blown away. Stevenson is a huge building block.
So all the rhetoric about winning and losing as a team is just a lot of meaningless hot air. Once the finger pointing starts it’s every player for himself and team unity is destroyed. Any HC that permits this can forget about having the players trust or loyalty going forward. Bears about to go on an extended losing streak and waste what could have been a useful season of rebuilding. Sad.
Stevenson clearly needs to grow up, but I also question why the Bears wouldn’t have used some timeouts at the end of the Washington game in order to give their pass rushers a chance to catch their breath and to get their players’ heads in the game on that last play.
Perhaps a timeout would have helped. My point is you can’t preach team unity and then start blaming/punishing some player for having a bad game while ignoring the other players who have bad games. A HC has to treat everyone the same and be consistent with his message if he hopes to maintain the players trust and loyalty. Without that trust and loyalty you have no chance of being an effective coach.
You have to team up a GM/HC and QB. Well run teams understand this. Poorly run teams do not. The Bears should have fired Flus and the whole staff and let their GM pick his QB and HC if they wanted to keep the GM.
They’re paying for it now. Caleb will have to learn a new system in 2025. This is how you wreck QBs.