Five Chicago Bears defensive players to watch at training camp

S Kevin Byard

It's not just Byard's age they need to look at, but whether he can be effective in this scheme as the deep safety. His age is part of it but more specifically it's whether he has the ability to be the deep safety in single safety high coverage. They might even determine Brisker is better off deep in this type of coverage. Maybe a few of the free agents could supply insurance in case of problems.

In the last full season Dennis Allen ran this scheme, the Saints wound up in single-high safety 53% of plays. This isn't a minor responsibility in the scheme the Bears will use. They want to be more aggressive with blitzes and it's going to put more pressure on the deep coverage if they're not successful applying pressure.

Byard has been around long enough to have played plenty of different styles of coverage so it's nothing new for him. It's age, speed and frequency of use of this scheme to be considered.

LB Ruben Hyppolite II

The rookie is unusually fast for a linebacker and coaches looked at him with first-team players for more reps during OTAs than most rookies because T.J. Edwards was out with an injury.

They might want to see even more because Allen could determine his speed makes him an ideal player to have on the field for blitzing. They're going to be more aggressive. Having a linebacker with DB speed can make him the blitzer or let him cover more ground faster in coverage in back while someone else is blitzing.

DT Andrew Billings

It was a torn pectoral muscle Billings suffered. He's had plenty of time to rehab and strengthen it. However, he's playing a position where contact and extensive use of upper body muscle comes into play every down. The fortunate thing for the Bears is they have plenty of depth on the defensive line.

The problem is no one plays the nose position as effectively as Billings when he is at full strength. They need to closely monitor his reps and get him to the opener at full strength.

A collapsed run defense triggered last year's second-half defensive slide. Not having Billings helped cause their run defense to drop from 14th to 28th and the pass rush then became less effective as a result. It can't happen again and Billings is a key.

CB Terell Smith

Every player needs a spur at camp. For two years, starter Tyrique Stevenson's spur was Smith. Coaches repeatedly talked up Smith as a potential starter and he was always pushing Stevenson. However, Smith's perceived strength then was said to be his zone coverage. With more man-to-man coverage in use, they'll need to see evidence Smith is every bit the third outside cornerback the past coaching staff thought. Stevenson needs to improve, and knowing they have someone to keep the pressure on him every day is necessary.

The newly reported injury/illness situation for Jaylon Johnson makes it so Smith will get more first-team reps to put his skills on display.

DE Dominique Robinson

The shocking comment from Ben Johnson caught everyone by surprise when he labeled Robinson one of the four players who surprised him most during OTAs. He said Robinson "popped," which stunned because Robinson had been a third-year player mired among game day healthy inactives in 2024, and some would say he was a game day unactive active in 2022 and 2023.

"He looks the part, for sure," Johnson said. "As we know, O-line and D-line play, it's hard to really gauge too much (without pads), but he does have a quick first step off the ball, and he lined up on our left tackles quite a bit here over the last few weeks and you could tell that he got the edge on him a few times."

Were those phantom reps against inexperienced tackles without pads on or can this be the much needed breakthrough for a fifth-round draft pick in a contract year?

Those pass rush drills in pads and the team scrimmage reps in 11-on-11 will be huge for Robinson to show it was no fluke.

Robinson may have gone from a player hoping to get onto the roster to an answer for one of their biggest injury issues. If he can do it, then there is less of a reason for Ryan Poles to pursue a veteran free agent edge or even trade for one. You could also put Austin Booker in this class but in only his second year he is not under the amount of pressure as Robinson