Bears get started on Tyrique Stevenson per report

The fallout from last week’s Hail Mary debacle against Washington has cost Tyrique Stevenson a start in Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Whether that also cost the Bears a second loss depends on how they adjust with another member of their secondary on the sidelines.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported this On Sunday, Stevenson will be benched and Terell Smith will make his sixth career start. The Tribune’s Dan Wiederer had previously reported that everything was heading this way.

The bottom line is that the Bears will again be without a large portion of their secondary players, possibly two of the five starters or even three.

Jaquan Brisker is still out with a concussion. It’s possible that cornerback Kyler Gordon could return from a hamstring injury this week.

However, he had not practiced since suffering the injury against Jacksonville on Oct. 13 in London, and did so as a limited participant on Friday. So he will enter this game with little actual practice participation in a week where they all had one less day of practice, as Matt Eberflus decided on a walk-through on Wednesday due to too many injuries to the offensive line.

The amount of the penalty is not discussed in Rapoport’s report, whether it means Stevenson will be inactive or simply not start. Stevenson was supposed to start the opener this year but didn’t, although he came in later and played almost the entire game. Eberflus declined to elaborate on why that happened Friday when asked.

Stevenson said he was cheering with the Bears fans when the Hail Mary pass started and stood with his back to the play. He then rushed to the scrum in front of the goal line and attempted to tip the ball, when his duty on the play was to cover the back player in the end zone. He tapped the ball straight back to the player he was supposed to cover, Noah Brown, and the catch resulted in a Washington victory.

The injuries in the secondary started for the Bears in their game against Carolina on Oct. 6, when Brisker suffered his third concussion in three years. He remains out and Elijah Hicks will play at his safety position again on Sunday.

“It’s really just about the symptom part,” Eberflus said. “It really is. Again, he’s made progress. He’s gone to the meetings, he’s done the walkthrough and gotten into those things and then has those symptoms.

“Again, it’s always about his safety and his health and where he is. Jaquan brings a lot of passion and energy to our team and certainly to our defense. He had a really good year leading up to this. His health and safety comes first and we want to make sure we get that right first. And then he’ll bring back that passion and energy like he always does.”

Even with all the injuries in their secondary, the Bears continue to lead the NFL in passer rating at 76.2, just ahead of Detroit (77.2). They are also No. 1 in red zone touchdown percentage allowed and fewest points allowed inside the red zone. Until the Hail Mary pass, they had allowed just four field goals in the hottest offense in the NFL and did so with their leading pass rusher, Montez Sweat, only able to play half the snaps in the game due to a shin injury .

In recent weeks, players have continued to support Stevenson and express their empathy.

“At the end of the day, he already feels like he’s in a terrible position, so there’s not much to say,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “I just have to come out here. We have a lot to say. We have to build up. Tell him he’s still going to play.”

“Ultimately we have to continue to get him in the right direction and bring him along so we can win these games.”

In case they need extra help in the secondary, they signed rookie Reddy Steward from the practice squad for this game.

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