Bears roster preview: Stroman, Jones and cornerback depth

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 cornerback depth. Check out our past stories on each member of the offense , punter Tory Taylor , kicker Cairo Santos , the defensive linemen , linebackers , safeties and cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson , Kyler Gordon , Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith .

The Chicago Bears enter the 2024 season with their top four corners returning from last year’s defense, which finished as the NFL’s eighth-worst against the pass.

Of course, that isn’t solely on the cornerbacks, but the Bears are nevertheless banking on internal improvement to help the unit make a leap this season. For the top four, that all seems plausible, but is anyone emerging from the depth behind them?

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Last season, both Josh Blackwell and Jaylon Jones made the initial roster. While Blackwell was pretty strictly limited to special teams, Jones showed solid ability both as a special teamer and a depth option each of the past two seasons.

Jones likely has the upper hand if the Bears are only keeping five corners, but if they again opt for six, Blackwell has challengers.

Greg Stroman Jr. seems to be the top threat. The 28-year-old has been around for a bit, first breaking into the league with Washington, but has spent the past few seasons with Chicago. Last year, he was a Bears practice squad player but was elevated to the active roster for five games and played 150 snaps on defense, holding his own, plus a handful of special teams snaps.

Entering training camp, the Bears listed Stroman ahead of Blackwell on their depth chart. Maybe that has since flipped in the coaches’ minds but Stroman has played pretty well in the preseason and seems to be getting better while Blackwell has been trending the opposite way.

Either way, the odd man out is likely a strong candidate for Chicago’s practice squad and one of the first elevations in the event of an injury.

Undrafted rookies Ro Torrence, Reddy Steward and Leon Jones are also trying to make their case for a practice squad spot and each has had some bright spots this preseason.

Overall, Chicago is relying heavily on its returning corners to improve but the group has a pretty solid floor thanks to Jaylon Johnson. There is certainly plenty of talent in the room, and if the others do take another step, there is the potential to be one of the better groups in the league. That being said, they’ll also need help from their pass rushers to get the ball out of opposing quarterbacks’ hands sooner this year to make a big jump statistically.