The Chicago Bears made the controversial decision to trade Gervon Dexter this offseason. They knew his contract was coming up, and it sounds like the coaching staff didn’t want to make him a permanent fixture up front. So they flipped him to the Atlanta Falcons for a 5th round pick and cornerback Clark Phillips. It made some sense. The Bears needed some extra draft capital and also lacked depth in the secondary. Phillips showed a lot of promise at times for the Falcons, but lost standing after the latest coaching change.

One would think he’d have seen the field by now. He’s been with the team long enough to have a decent understanding of the system. However, the Bears are entering week 6, and Phillips has yet to log a single defensive snap. His only work has come on special teams, both on coverage and return units. This is a somewhat odd decision, since Phillips was never known for his special-teams prowess in Atlanta. Why haven’t the Bears allowed him to play his actual position?

Clark Phillips can’t be worse than what the Bears got Sunday.

Jaylon Johnson had one of his worst games in years, furthering what has been a deeply underwhelming season for the former Pro Bowler. Tyrique Stevenson once again left the game with a hamstring issue, and rookie Malik Muhammad struggled as well. One would think the circumstances were favorable for Phillips to get at least a little bit of work. Yet still nothing. It raises a fair question. Why in the world did the Bears trade for him if they had no intention of actually putting him on the field, even in a limited capacity?

The only explanation that makes any sense is that defensive coordinator Dennis Allen doesn’t think he’s ready. Remember, he said that learning this scheme is challenging. It is complex. That is partly why players looked somewhat lost at times last season. Clark Phillips arrived right before the season, without the benefit of training camp to get up to speed. It wouldn’t do him or the Bears any good to just throw him out there. Still, it’s been over a month. He has had enough time to absorb the playbook.

The Bears may have no choice now.

If Stevenson misses Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, the team must look to their reserves for help. Phillips knows that team better than anyone on the roster. If anybody understands how to play against those wide receivers, it’d be him. After all, he did so for years in every practice. There is still no guarantee that Kyler Gordon will be activated this week. If not, the list of options other than Phillips is far from ideal. Whether Allen thinks he’s ready or not won’t matter. They need healthy bodies.

The Bears can’t know what they have until they give Phillips a shot. Leaving him on the bench isn’t doing their public image any favors. Chicago sold the cornerback as a key part of that Dexter trade. Somebody their pro scouts liked. To do that and then not use him is a really bad look. Dexter’s standout play in Atlanta isn’t helping matters. Either let the cornerback play or just cut him already.

There is no bigger disappointment for the Chicago Bears this season than cornerback Jaylon Johnson. The team came into 2026 fully expecting him to resume his place as one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks. Instead, what they’ve seen is a player who looks like a shell of his former self. Through 5 games, Johnson has allowed 15 catches on 18 targets for 248 yards. Both are on pace to be the worst of his career by miles. Quarterbacks have a 118.7 passer rating in coverage. Sunday’s loss in Green Bay was one of the ugliest he’s had in a long time.

Despite still only being 27 years old, Johnson has been routinely beaten by opposing wide receivers. His ability to stick to guys has disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the Bears are paying the price for that steep and sudden decline. People are left wondering what in the world happened. Players his age shouldn’t fall off so fast. Bears fans have a theory. It has nothing to do with a change in his training methods or defensive scheme. This is a simple case of Johnson no longer watching porn.

Yes, really.

Jaylon Johnson was better as a sex addict.

That is what everybody is saying. Of course, it sounds crazy, but the timelines are at least interesting. Johnson admitted in the spring of 2024 that he had undergone therapy for sex addiction. He worried that such a lifestyle would be harmful to both himself and his relationship with his children. The treatments worked. He became far more comfortable with who he was as a person. That made it easier for him to sleep at night. No doubt it would also help him become a better football player.

Not based on the numbers. In his first four seasons, Jaylon Johnson allowed 57.5% of passes completed in his direction for a 90.7 passer rating. In the past two and a half years since he received his treatment, those numbers have ballooned to 70.8% and a 99.3 rating, respectively. He went from one of the five best cornerbacks in the league to probably not even the best on his team. Johnson isn’t even a steady presence. He has become an outright liability.

There is a more believable theory.

It is that the injuries Johnson suffered last season were far more debilitating than he or anyone else let on. He suffered what was called a tearing of the adductor muscle off the pelvic bone. It is the worst possible type of groin injury. It takes months to heal, and even then, there are significant long-term risks. The big issue with such an injury is that it causes a tendon to lose some elasticity. The muscle can no longer snap back with the same instantaneous force. That lack of “spring” translates to a microscopic delay when a cornerback tries to match a sudden change of direction or put on a burst of speed.

Remember, Johnson only had 4.5 speed when he got to the NFL. Losing even half a step for any reason threatened to make him far less effective. That injury was catastrophic for a cornerback like him, who doesn’t have the speed to spare. The same thing happened to Adam “Pacman” Jones in 2017. He only managed to play 7 more games in his career after that. Morris Claiborne went through it in 2016. He played three more seasons but retired before turning 30.

Everything that has gone wrong for Johnson started with that injury last summer.

The Chicago Bears‘ defense has been a conundrum so far this season. They’ve had some great performances, like against Philadelphia and New York, mixed with some ugly clunkers like Carolina and Green Bay. Nobody is sure what to make of them. That is likely because they aren’t getting great results from every position group on a consistent basis. While the defensive line has been better than expected, the secondary has not. You saw that on Sunday at Lambeau Field. Is part of the problem with Dennis Allen’s use of his personnel? Austin Booker certainly thinks so.

Anybody who has followed the former 5th round pick since his arrival in 2024 knows he is a self-confident young man. Booker has always carried himself like a player who knows he has the talent and work ethic to be good at this level. Unfortunately, as he told Herb Howard of The Score, the coaches don’t always give him consistent playing time to prove it. He wasn’t happy after the first three games, feeling he wasn’t being used enough. With all due respect to his teammates, that is unacceptable.

Austin Booker then sent a message on Sunday.

While the defense as a whole was terrible for much of the afternoon, the defensive end produced his best all-around performance since joining the team. Booker was everywhere. Not only did he finish with 2 sacks of Jordan Love, but he also added 4 run stops for no gain or a loss. Green Bay had no answers for him. It isn’t difficult to determine why it turned out this way. Booker logged a season-high 44 snaps on defense. Yet somehow that is still far lower than the 55-65 he was getting last year.

Part of the problem is the return of Dayo Odeyingbo. Allen has wanted to get the defensive end on the field against the run, which is his strength. Austin Booker would be more of a designated pass rusher. However, that might be a mistake. Booker wasn’t lying. When his snaps go up, the production has gone up. Last season, he logged 5 games with 60 or more snaps. In those 5 games, he had 20 pressures and 2 sacks. For his career, Booker has played 12 games in which he has had at least 40 snaps. He has 38 pressures and 7 sacks in those games.

The coaches need to maintain the current workload.

At the very least, they have to keep Booker’s snap count above 40. That seems to be the dividing line for his productivity. Anything lower, and it’s been difficult to generate impact plays. With all due respect to Grady Jarrett and Neville Gallimore, the obvious move seems to be keeping Odeyingbo inside and letting Booker be the primary guy on the edge opposite Montez Sweat. That configuration has done wonders for them this season whenever Allen has deployed it. Why not make it a full-time thing?

Booker may get his wish either way. Odeyingbo had to leave Sunday’s game with a quad injury. There is a possibility he could miss some time. That would mean Booker goes back to getting 60+ snaps per game. If he maintains his current pace, he could become the first drafted Bears player in 20 years to crack double-digit sacks. The timing would be incredibly fortuitous with his rookie contract winding down.

Sunday must’ve brought back some nightmarish visions for Chicago Bears fans. They’re all too familiar watching overwhelmed quarterbacks going against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. It’s been their experience for most of the past 30 years. It was hoped that Tyson Bagent was mature enough to handle that pressure. He was not. The fourth-year quarterback delivered the worst performance of his career, going 12-for-21 for 87 yards and 2 interceptions.

Was it really that bad, though? There are cases in the past where a quarterback never really had a chance because the situation around him was so bad. Maybe his teammates let him down. So I dug into the game tape for some answers. Let’s put it this way.

Had Bagent played even a C+ kind of game on Sunday, he likely would’ve had over 300 yards passing. That is how many open opportunities he missed. Here is a rundown of some of the worst.

Tyson Bagent play #1 – The first INT

One thing you’ll see a lot throughout the film is Bagent predetermining where he goes with the ball. It’s pretty evident from this play that he was going to Luther Burden once he’d looked off the safety. He didn’t bother to examine just how crowded the coverage was. Had he done the responsible thing and pulled the ball in, he would have had Colston Loveland wide open with over 10 yards of green grass in front of him. It is a bad read and a bad decision.

Play #2

Another persistent feature of this game was how Tyson Bagent kept wasting good protection with bad throws. Here, he gets the snap, and the offensive line gives him a clean pocket. Ultimately, he throws too far ahead of Cole Kmet in the flat, who’s wide open. That alone is bad. Yet if he’d trusted the protection as he should have, he would have seen Loveland past the linebacker at the 40-yard line and pretty much all by himself. If Bagent puts the ball on him, the tight end has Rome Odunze already in front of the safety to block for him.

Play #3

This is another case of Bagent trying to force the ball to a predetermined target. It’s clear from his eyes that he is looking for Odunze all the way. He wisely climbs the pocket to buy time. There is nobody in his face. He should be able to see that Green Bay has that area of the field bracketed between four defenders. Bagent doesn’t have the arm for a throw like that. Meanwhile, Burden is all alone at the 15-yard line. It should be an easy decision. Instead, the quarterback goes for the home run. It isn’t a very good throw, and the Packers get the pick.

Play #4

If it’s starting to sound overly repetitive, that’s because it is. Tyson Bagent is locked onto Loveland, who is the primary read on the play. The quarterback can’t recognize how tight the coverage is. Only a perfect throw would’ve worked. What hurts even more is that Bagent didn’t have to look far for a better option. Rookie receiver Zavion Thomas was in the same area. He was wide open running a post route. If he gets the ball, there is no way that Packers safety is catching him before the end zone.

Play #5 – Bagent’s rock bottom

Probably the most egregious play Bagent made in this game. The situation was crucial. Chicago had just scored to make it 14-7 and forced a Green Bay punt. A quick 6-yard pass made it 2nd and 4 at the Bears’ own 16-yard line. With a minute to go, they still have time to put some points on the board before the half. Instead, Bagent takes a brutal 6-yard sack. Rewatching the tape shows by far his worst read of the day.

Green Bay brings a blitz from the right side. Wide receiver Luther Burden runs his route directly into the open space they leave behind. He has nobody within 10 yards of him. Bagent is literally staring right at him. The pocket isn’t perfect, but he has enough time. He doesn’t pull the trigger. A late blitz from Brandon Cisse leads to a sack, killing the drive and pretty much leading to the second-half collapse.

Normally, in games like this, there are reasons why a quarterback struggles. The protection is bad. Receivers aren’t getting open. Maybe the elements play a part. That isn’t the case here. The weather was perfect. Protection, while not pristine, was more than adequate. Worst of all, receivers were open quite often. Bagent just didn’t take advantage. That loss is mostly on him, at least from the offense’s perspective.

The Chicago Bears had good reasons to feel confident going into Sunday. They knew they could beat the Green Bay Packers, having done so twice in 2025. Unfortunately, such things are impossible when you turn the ball over 5 times. What was a close game going into the 3rd quarter spiraled out of control. The Packers raced ahead to a decisive 31-7 win, getting a measure of revenge for their humiliating playoff loss. However, it seems that they might have created some dangerous overconfidence on their part.

Packers players have said several times, dating back to last season, that the Bears talk too much, both players and coaches. Linebacker Zaire Franklin decided to fire back, calling out wide receiver Luther Burden for quitting.

He wasn’t alone. Wide receiver Christian Watson took his turn when he dismissed the Bears’ defense as a non-factor. They are weak and easy to exploit. No surprise he feels that way after putting up 142 yards and 2 touchdowns, and yet voicing it aloud to the media? Clearly, he thinks there won’t be consequences.

The Green Bay Packers no doubt think they’ve reasserted control.

They certainly played one of their best games of the season. That said, context feels important here. While they did put up 31 points, they did so courtesy of 5 turnovers and 6 plays of 30 yards or more. That doesn’t feel like something they’re likely to duplicate in the next meeting on Christmas Day. They only averaged 2.7 yards per carry on the ground. This was not one of those games where one team was clearly superior to the other. Most of what the Packers got were gifts from the Bears’ many mistakes.

Then you must factor in the names who were absent. Playing Tyson Bagent instead of Caleb Williams made life so much easier for them. That doesn’t include the absences of key names like Ozzy Trapilo, Coby Bryant, Kyle Monangai, and Kyler Gordon. Sure, the Green Bay Packers didn’t have Micah Parsons and Josh Jacobs, but only one of those absences is due to injuries. The Bears also lost three more starters during the game. Once key guys start dropping, a game almost always gets away from you.

Don’t expect this result to change anything.

The Bears played poorly and lost. The Packers played well and won. It’s pretty much that simple. We’ll see if the results remain the same in the rematch. By then, most of the key players the Bears were missing should be back. Most importantly, the quarterback who is 3-2 against Green Bay. If the Packers win that one as well? They’re free to talk all they want. Doing all that yapping now feels a little over the top. All it’s doing is serving the Bears with plenty of motivational material.

Green Bay doesn’t have long to celebrate. Their schedule isn’t getting easier with Dallas, Detroit, Carolina, New England, and Minnesota all coming up before the bye week. It’s the same for the Bears with Atlanta, Seattle, New England, and Tampa Bay. Both teams will want that second matchup in December to mean something. The Packers will look pretty foolish if they walk into Soldier Field out of the playoff picture.

The Chicago Bears drafted Rome Odunze to become their eventual #1 wide receiver. That is what you expect from a top 10 pick. While he hasn’t been what you can classify as bad, the former 9th overall selection has been a disappointment. Last season, it was being derailed by a foot injury. This season? Let’s just say he has never really gotten over the consistency issues that plagued him as a rookie. If ever there was a day that Chicago needed their playmakers to make plays, it was against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

Instead, all Odunze did was remind everybody how underwhelming he remains. This is not a front-line wide receiver. Those guys don’t make the types of brutal mistakes that Odunze did on Sunday. Not only did he drop yet another touchdown pass, his third since January’s playoff loss to the Rams, but he also delivered a brutal fumble. On top of everything else, he caught 3 passes for 40 yards. That was despite being targeted 9 times. This was by far the biggest issue with him over the past two years. Even when you try funneling the ball to him, he doesn’t catch it nearly often enough.

Rome Odunze is what he is at this point.

They say you always know who a player will be in the NFL by their third season. If they haven’t evolved into a star by then, you’re not getting one. This is who the Bears have. Odunze is a big receiver who doesn’t play that way, has poor hands, and struggles with constant concentration issues. Stop and ask this question. Knowing head coach Ben Johnson, do you think he would consider extending a player like that? The answer is no. He is not the type of person who rewards mediocrity.

It’s unfortunate. Up until now, Bears general manager Ryan Poles has had a pretty strong track record with his 1st round picks. Darnell Wright is one of the best right tackles in football. Caleb Williams was stellar last season. Colston Loveland was unblockable down the stretch. Dillon Thieneman leads the team in tackles as a rookie safety. So many positives. Rome Odunze looks like he’s the worst of those picks, which is shocking to many after the awesome career he had for Washington in college.

It further proves that drafting is not an exact science.

Lots of people believed Odunze was destined for success. The 2024 wide receiver class was called one of the best in a decade. Instead, it’s proving to be the most overhyped. Marvin Harrison Jr. was just traded by Arizona. Brian Thomas Jr. was relegated to backup snaps in Jacksonville. Malik Nabers has recurring health problems. No stars to be found. Odunze is not a bad player. He has performed at a high enough level where you can see him as a solid #2 option in some offenses. The problem is that wasn’t what the Bears drafted him to be.

They wanted a playmaker. Odunze is not that. You don’t blunder the number of opportunities he’s had and call yourself that. In truth, he’s another Mike Williams. The former 1st round pick joined the Chargers with tons of promise. While he did have a couple of 1,000-yard seasons, he was also plagued by drops and consistency issues. Ultimately, while he stayed with L.A. for 7 years, he never lived up to his potential. Odunze is on that same trajectory.