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

We asked our team at Windy City Gridiron to answer a bunch of questions for a preseason roundtable about the position groups of the 2022 Chicago Bears. Are the position rooms better, worse, or a push from the guys they had for the 2021 season?

We took the answers one position group at a time and have been rolling them out all week. Let us know your thoughts about Chicago's safeties this season in the comment section below after checking out what we had to say about them here.

Better

Aaron Leming: Jaquan Brisker is the closest thing we’ve seen to Adrian Amos since 2018. That should greatly improve the play of Eddie Jackson. Their depth is also well put together. The good news is that this team has multiple starting options in base defenses and even more options in sub-packages.

Sam Householder: Brisker is a gigantic upgrade, and the depth appears better too with Dane Cruikshank and rookie Elijah Hicks.

Peter Borkowski: As long as Jaquan Brisker gets healthy soon, he should help push Eddie Jackson back to prominence and be a solid day one starter in his own right. The combination of those two things coming to fruition would quickly put this year’s safety group above last year's. DeAndre Houston-Carson has been a good role player for a couple of seasons now, and Dane Cruikshank, aka the “Tight End Eraser,” should have no problem finding a valuable role on the team.

Lester Wiltfong: Same as with corner, there’s no way this position group will be worse than last year. Jackson is primed for a bounce-back season playing alongside Jaquan Brisker, and DHC and Cruikshank gives them solid depth.

ECD: As corner is the most improved group, consider Safety the runner-up. Jaquan Brisker already has the makings and the debut to suggest he may become a star sooner than expected. I also liked the signing of Dane Cruikshank in free agency, provided how good he is when covering large-bodied tight ends or receivers. Eddie Jackson’s return to prominence would take this unit back to the top in the league.

Josh Sunderbruch: Better, at least as soon as Brisker returns.

Worse

Move along, nothing to see here...

Push

Jack Salo: Look, this roster needed overhauling, but whew, it was still crazy that they tore the defense down so quickly. Tashaun Gipson was a serviceable starter for a defense that really needed their other starting safety, Eddie Jackson, to be great again. Neither jumped off the page in 2021, except the latter on some missed tackles that were perhaps blown out of proportion. Enter Jaquan Brisker, a potential superstar safety who has already shown some flash in the preseason. DHC is back, which helps special teams stability, but the starters are a rookie and a veteran trending downward.

We put this question on Twitter, and here’s how that poll went.