The Chicago Bears made some history on Sunday against the Detroit Lions with the excellent performance of their young safety.
Jaquan Brisker finished the game with a career-high 17 tackles in the Bears 28-13 upset. The win was Brisker's fifth career game with 10+ combined tackles and first career game with 15+ combined tackles.
Seeing a defensive back total 10+ combined tackles in a game is always a surprise, but seeing one combine for 15+ is even more uncommon.
To put Brisker's game on Sunday into perspective, his 17 combined tackles in Week 14 is the most in a game by a Bears defensive back dating all the way back to 1960.
"It's unbelievable to get 17 tackles, I mean that's unheard of," Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said after the game. "I don't think that's ever happened in my career to have a guy have that many tackles, I honestly can't remember. That's amazing and what he brings is the reason why we drafted him."
The Bears drafted Brisker with the 48th selection in the 2022 NFL Draft. Brisker was the 11th defensive back selected in the class, but what he brings to the table has set a standard for what the team will continue to be searching for in their players.
"Ryan [Poles] and I always talked about guys we require bringing the love of football," Eberflus added. "Loving football, it brings a passion and a juice to everybody else. If we get enough guys like that, you can feel that energy and that's what he has. We got to keep bringing guys like that in here and doing a great job evaluating and Ryan and his crew are definitely doing that."
The Bears starting safety now has 80 combined tackles on the season, which is T-15th most among safeties despite missing two games earlier in the season. Brisker also has recorded seven pass deflections, one interception and one sack in 2023 but feels like he's just getting started.
"He's always texting me when I'm putting the game plan and saying 'put a couple pressures in for me' and he's always constantly on me about that," Eberflus said. "He is a ball of energy, as is Kyler [Gordon] and all the rest of the guys. They're all that same way. They bring great energy and they bring it in practice and that's the most important thing."
Brisker was all over the field against the Lions on Sunday. Outside of the 17 tackles, Brisker also forced two pass breakups and was bringing the heat every time he collided with a Lions offensive player in the open field.
"He was beating guys to the punch," Eberflus said. "I love his aggressiveness. He was dropping in from the higher part of the field and being able to react to the run that way too. He did a really good job with that. His instincts and his passion really showed up. He's an aggressive guy and he does a really good job tackling and his instincts are elite."
Brisker is emerging as yet another Bears franchise cornerstone who will help elevate the defense for years to come. General manager Ryan Poles is putting the right players together and it's finally starting to pay off on the field.
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