2022 Chicago Bears Cornerbacks: Better, worse, or push when compared to a year ago

We asked our Windy City Gridiron staffers to answer several questions for a pre-season roundtable about the position groups of the 2022 Chicago Bears. Are the rooms better, worse, or a push from the players they had for the 2021 season?

We took the answers one position at a time, and we’ve been rolling them out all week long. Let us know your thoughts about the cornerbacks they have this year in the comment section below after checking out what we had to say about them here.

Better

ECD: This group might have seen the most improvement from 2021 to 2022. Kyler Gordon is a player who will flex between Nickel and Corner during their rookie season. Kindle Vildor doesn’t excite people, but he’s a better fit in the coverage concepts set to be utilized under Alan Williams. Jaylon Johnson is still a stud. Once healthy and ready, a player like Thomas Graham will fill the reserves up with more quality.

Aaron Leming: Purely based on the pick of Kyler Gordon and better nickel options, it’s hard not to envision this group not being considerably better than what we saw last year, with Kindle Vildor being one of the league’s worst corners. Health will be key at the nickel spot, but I expect another big step from Jaylon Johnson and a quality rookie campaign from Gordon. Their depth is also better, in turn.

Josh Sunderbruch: Better. Kyler Gordon will be an upgrade alone.

Peter Borkowski: Kyler Gordon already looks like an impact player, so pairing him up with a healthy Jaylon Johnson should make for one of the best young duos in the league. Add in what look to be good depth pieces in Lamar Jackson and Kindle Vildor, as well as the potential seen in Thomas Graham Jr., and this will be a fun group for the coaching staff to play around with and a big improvement over the burnt toast often seen on the field last season.

Jack Salo: They finally addressed cornerback through the draft and found a stud in Kyler Gordon. He’ll pair with Jaylon Johnson to make a formidable starting cornerback pairing. They’ll still have Kindle Vildor, and the new scheme may serve him better.

Sam Householder: Kyler Gordon is definitely an upgrade, and Kindle Vildor (new scheme), and Lamar Jackson as the third and fourth CBs are better for them.

Lester Wiltfong: This unit has some question marks, but they’re still going to perform better than last year’s corners. Rookie Kyler Gordon will suffer from some growing pains, but between him and a better scheme fit for Vildor, they’ll find a good mix to play with CB1 Jaylon Johnson.

Worse

Move along, nothing to see here...

Push

Nothing to see here either!

These answers were given before the Bears tweaked their 53-man roster, but the transactions didn’t change anyone’s response.

We put the question about corners on Twitter, and here’s how that poll went.