Bears have problems but now the Minnesota Vikings have their own

The Bears have had their problems with Addison. He caught 24 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns in his two seasons against them for four games. He outperformed Jefferson against them in those two seasons, although Jefferson missed both games in 2023 because of injury. Last year, Jaylon Johnson managed to keep Jefferson in check with 100 yards on nine catches with a TD in two games. In one game, he had 27 yards and two catches.

Their game this week against Miami was being looked at as a good preparation for the secondary for that opener because of Miami's dominant receiver corps with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

"It is just work at the end of the day, iron sharpens iron and that's what's going to happen when the Dolphins come in with their Pro Bowl receivers," cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. "I'm going to do my best to cover them.”

Stevenson and Kyler Gordon most often would be stuck covering Addison in the Bears' scheme.

Now, according to Will Ragatz of Minnesota Vikings On SI, there is a scramble going on to find the best option after Addison. They'll no doubt lean even more heavily on Jefferson. And with Johnson either less prepared or not playing at all, it might not be the toughest thing for the Vikings to do.

Still, the other guys according to Ragatz are Jalen Nailor, practice squad player Lucky Jackson or Rondale Moore. Nailor, plagued by dropped passes last year, did have 414 yards with six TDs last year in his best season and is the favorite to step into that role.

Moore is coming off an ACL tear and Jackson is a 28-year-old former UFL player.

The good news for the Bears defense doesn't stop there.

It seems there is some skepticism over the glowing local media reports coming from training camp about quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

It's been a repeated argument made by Fox talkshow host Colin Cowherd that McCarthy is vastly overrated, although what he's basing this on remains to be seen. After all, McCarthy hasn't played a regular-season down so there is nothing either way in the filing cabinet on him beyond his college play. And that was good enough for a national title.

However, no less an expert than Dianna Russini cast similar doubt on McCarthy's ability in a conversation with Cowherd about one-sided reporting about the new Vikings starter.

"It sounds like what you've noticed, and this is something I've noticed too, is that there is a lot of lifting up of JJ McCarthy," Russini told Cowherd.

She offered up a need by the organization to inflate McCarthy's accomplishments because of how much the Vikings spent to move up and draft McCarthy. They moved up one spot and gave up the 129th and 157th picks, while also getting back the 203rd pick.

This doesn't sound like an especially high price to pay if a QB is worth the investment.

And when it comes to pumping up quarterbacks, while the Chicago media has been fairly evenhanded reporting the foul-ups by Caleb Williams in training camp, the Bears have been pumping out a regular stream of highlight plays and glowing quotes about their starter.

So it works both ways, here.

The quarterback battle will be interesting with essentially a rookie in McCarthy against Williams, a Viking wannabe according to Seth Wickersham's book, and a second-year passer in his second offense in two years.

But the third receiver situation against the Bears secondary could be more decisive because even if Johnson isn't yet 100%, the Bears can always devote more attention to Jefferson knowing they don't need to face Addison as well.