Chicago Bears nickelback Kyler Gordon has never allowed a catch in two career meetings versus Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison.
Of course, Addison was only targeted once when lined up across Gordon. This is despite logging 29 snaps in the slot in those two meetings, per Pro Football Focus.
Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson (and Terell Smith) will see Justin Jefferson the most. Gordon will also likely see more of Jalen Nailor in Week 12. But when Addison lines up in the slot, that could make for an interesting battle between two dynamic young players.
Bears’ Kyler Gordon Gets Honest About Vikings’ Jordan Addison
Kyler Gordon vs Jordan Addison Could Be Fun Battle in Bears-Vikings
Addison has 359 yards and 3 touchdowns on 24 receptions in eight games played. He has a 10-128-2 line during the Vikings’ current three-game winning streak.
Still, Gordon did not have strong thoughts on the matchup.
“He’s been the same type of a receiver that they’ve been using him as,” Gordon told Clocker Sports on Wednesday. “I don’t view him any differently than they’ve been using him. So it’s no different than he’s been used in these past two years and the type of receiver he is.”
Perhaps it is a matter of greater anticipation for his matchups with Nailor. Maybe it is Gordon’s trademark confidence shining through.
Either way, Addison is the Vikings’ WR2, so there is a good chance the ball is coming his way.
Where it could get interesting is if the Vikings line Addison up in the backfield. They have done so three times this season. But Gordon, who operates as a “mini QB” in the Bears’ defense, is apt to come on a blitz.
That was nasty, @kyler_gordon 😮💨
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/a5iOrNvJSn
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 17, 2024
How Addison – or any of the Vikings’ running backs led by Aaron Jones – handles that could go a long way toward determining this contest.
LS Scott Daly Talks Bond Among Bears’ Specialists
Everyone has an opinion about the Bears’ blocked field goal that prevented them from snapping their losing streak versus the Green Bay Packers, which now stands at 11 games. Bears long snapper Scott Daly lived it.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said they would submit footage of the play to the league office.
Even with his vantage point, though, Daly was not ready to call foul on Packers defensive lineman Karl Brooks. Brooks got the game-sealing block and won NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
“It’s a hard to tell in that moment,” Daly told Clocker Sports on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of bodies out there, and it’s one of those things that you can’t really focus on that. You got a job to do when your numbers called, we all have to execute. And, of course, it didn’t happen out there/ So it’s just, yeah, it’s one of those things you just gotta look at it, try to improve the best you can.
“I just always look myself in the mirror, and whenever I go on the field and things don’t go the way that we hoped, I just try to look at myself, see if I could have done any better and just try to improve next time to score from there.”
Looking inward fits the theme of support for Cairo Santos, who said on Wednesday that he would have preferred the ball to be on the other hash, per The Chicago Tribune’s Dan Wiederer.
As a group, the Bears special teams unit is tight-knit, so they were just as supportive.
“This is a super tight group,” Daly said. “Everyone – Tory [Taylor], Cairo, HT [special teams coordinator Richard Hightower], everyone – Pat [Scales]. We’re all looking out for each other. We’re all just trying to just hunker down, and just look to improve like I said earlier, and really just try to focus on the next [opportunity].
“No one’s going to feel sorry for us. We have a job to do, we have a great opponent coming this week. Another division game, so we gotta just focus on our job, and just focus on just going out there when our numbers called next time, just executing.”
Daly is a Downers Grove, Illinois native and Notre Dame alum in his fourth NFL season, so the Bears-Packers rivalry is surely not lost on him. He noted that it is “part of the job” for players to move on and that they must execute better next time.
As for Hightower’s message, it was in line with the rest of the group’s messaging.
“Just that he has full faith and trust in us, that we just keep doing our thing. That these games moving forward are definitely going to come down to us, and we have to make sure we’re playing at a very elite level and just playing our very best,” Daly said Hightower told them. “And that starts with our preparation, just execution this week going up through Sunday.
“Then just going out there, having fun, just cutting loose and just making sure that we’re just doing our best each and every play and make it happen.”
Bears Still Boast Top GM, HC Candidates
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero listed Hightower among assistants who could be on teams’ shortlists for head coaching vacancies in the next cycle. Also on the list are offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler listed assistant general manager Ian Cunningham as a potential GM candidate.
Both Brown and Cunningham have plenty of interviewing experience and could be top targets.