Bears roster preview: Could we get a Brisker breakout in 2024?

As we head toward a new season, Bears Digest is looking at each member of the 53-man roster to recap their 2023-24 season and look ahead to the upcoming campaign. Today, we focus on safety Jaquan Brisker. Check out our past stories on each member of the offense , punter Tory Taylor , kicker Cairo Santos , the defensive linemen , linebackers and safety Kevin Byard .

The Chicago Bears were one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL last season, but not a lot changed on the back end this offseason.

The club did add Kevin Byard at starting safety, which should help some, but could Chicago’s other safety have a third-year breakout?

The Bears have been high on Jaquan Brisker since they selected him in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft and the 25-year-old has had a good start to his career. Yet, with 2025 being the final year of his rookie deal, the Bears will want to see him take a step forward this year before talking about an extension.

Pro Football Focus graded Brisker as the 48th-best safety in the league last season out of 95 qualifying players, giving him a 66.7 overall grade, an 81.8 pass-rush grade (12th), a 62.4 coverage grade (56th) and a 71.7 run defense grade (31st). He’s also a really strong tackler, getting a 78.3 grade (tied for 18th).

Altogether, his numbers are similar to his new partner on the back end, Byard. Both are great tacklers who excel against the run but are just OK in coverage, although Byard is still pretty solid there while Brisker is better rushing the passer.

Two years in, Brisker is a really good box safety, excelling when playing up and either rushing or attacking ball carriers. Per PFF, his 10 pressures were tied for ninth-most by a safety last year; his 80 tackles were tied for 10th at the position; his 34 stops — tackles constituting a “failure” for the offense — were second-most among safeties; and he went from a below-average tackler as a rookie to above-average, missing just 8.6% of is tackle attempts in 2023 (tied for the 73rd-highest rate by safeties).

His next step to have a breakout year will be to improve in coverage, where he’s not awful but has room for growth.

Last year, Brisker gave up 31 catches on 47 targets, according to PFF. That made him the 16th-most targeted safety and he gave up the 18th-most catches at the position. Obviously it’s not great to rank that highly in catches allowed but he still did OK considering how frequently he was targeted. Additionally, he stacked up well in other areas.

Per PFF, Brisker in 2023 gave up:

• Catches on 66% of his targets : Just the 56th-highest among safeties who played at least 300 snaps
• 290 yards : 33rd-most by a safety
• 9.4 yards per catch : 71st-highest among safeties
• 100 yards after the catch : 47th-most by safeties
• 3 touchdowns : tied for 13th-most at the position

All of those rankings, outside of touchdowns, are pretty good, especially considering how frequently he was targeted. Plus, he also totaled:

• 5 pass breakups : tied for 11th-most by a safety.
• 1 interception
• A 95.2 passer rating allowed : 44th-highest among safeties.

Based on his current skill set, Chicago has played Brisker up in the box a lot — 392 snaps last season, sixth-most among safeties and more than he played back at a typical safety alignment (316) — and he also lined up in the slot 113 times, increasing his time close to the line. That’s a good way to take advantage of his strengths, but being able to more successfully deploy him back in coverage would benefit the Bears, too.

What will be interesting, given that Byard also excels as a box safety, is watching how Chicago deploys them together. They should certainly help an already stout run defense and offer some flexibility to switch who comes up and stays back, but how will they work together in coverage?

Brisker, being the younger and more athletic of the two, may have the better skills for coverage but hasn’t yet proven to be as reliable in that area as his new teammate. But, if the youngster is able to make a leap this season, perhaps with the help of the veteran, they could help transform the Bears’ defense into one of the better overall units in the league.