The Chicago Bears secondary has become a bit thinner as of Tuesday.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Artie Burns went down with the injury during a Tuesday padded practice, which hasn’t been the first or even the most notable injury around the league. Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Gerald McCoy also had his season shortened by a ruptured right quadriceps tendon injury and was released via an injury waiver in his contract.
Artie Burns signed with the Bears this off-season after four seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers— who selected him with the 25th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. In 58 career games, he recorded 149 combined tackles, 27 passes defensed and four interceptions, but the Steelers decided to decline the fifth-year option on his contract last year, which allowed him to hit the open market this off-season.
Burns’ career has been deemed a disappointment by many and the ACL tear doesn’t change this perception in the slightest. He was hyped as a first or second-round pick in his draft class, but his results during his career thus far have not matched those expectations.
While Kyle Fuller is clearly the number one corner on the roster, the Bears need to come to a conclusion as to who will start alongside him in the secondary, and a possible candidate lies in their second-round selection from this previous draft, Jaylon Johnson out of Utah. Kevin Toliver and Buster Skrine are also vying for this spot, competing with another rookie corner on the roster: Kindle Vildor out of Georgia Southern, whom the Bears selected in the fifth round.
The Bears’ desire to maintain an elite pass defense and possibly resurrect the formidable defense of 2018, as last season they finished ninth in the league with an average of 222.1 passing yards per game to opposing offenses.
