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Courtney Cronin
The Chicago Bears secondary is getting some much-needed reinforcements ahead of Friday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon were activated off injured reserve prior to the Bears’ flight to Philadelphia on Thursday. Johnson and Gordon were both designated as questionable to play on the team’s final injury report.
Johnson has missed all but one half of the season when he sustained an injury to his core muscle in the second quarter of Chicago’s Week 2 loss at Detroit. The Pro Bowl cornerback underwent surgery in September and returned to practice nine weeks later.
Gordon has played in two games this season after a hamstring injury forced him to miss Weeks 1-4 and subsequent calf and groin injuries landed him on injured reserve ahead of Week 8.
None of Chicago’s starting cornerbacks have played together this season. Johnson and Gordon’s activation comes at an important time given the Bears will be without fellow cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who was ruled out with a hip injury sustained against Pittsburgh on Nov. 23.
Coach Ben Johnson said the Bears will be mindful with the amount of game action they expect from Gordon and Jaylon Johnson, who should both be active on Friday.
«I just I go back to the moment we started practicing them,» Ben Johnson said. «It was with the big picture in mind. How do we acclimate them, make sure that we’re putting them in a good spot?
«So throughout the course of the weeks of practice, we’ve been able to slowly increase the rep count there, and then, yeah, we’ll be very mindful of that when we do get them up and going in a game, just we don’t want to throw them into the wolves or put them in a bad spot. So yeah, that’s all been talked about, and we have a plan for it.»
While the Bears secondary is getting healthier, the team’s linebacker corps remains incredibly thin. Tremaine Edmunds will miss Chicago’s next three games while on injured reserve, and it’s next top three linebackers — T.J. Edwards, Noah Sewell and Ruben Hyppolite — did not practice this week and were ruled out.
The Bears are once again expected to turn to D’Marco Jackson and Amen Ogbongbemiga, who combined for 29 tackles against the Steelers.
