Common supervisor Ryan Poles has made quite a few strikes to boost the Chicago Bears secondary since he took over in January 2022. In last 12 months’s draft, he added cornerback Kyler Gordon and safety Jaquan Brisker inside the second spherical. And late last month, he used one different second-round determine on Tyrique Stevenson, a 6-foot, 198-pound cornerback who carried out two seasons at Georgia and two at Miami.
Now Stevenson is predicted to compete for collaborating in time at nook with Gordon and Jaylon Johnson.
Miami secondary coach Jahmile Addae coached Stevenson for his final season with the Hurricanes, all through which Stevenson had two interceptions and 9 passes defended.
Addae spoke with the Tribune this month to share his experiences working with Stevenson. Right here’s that interview, edited for readability.
Observe: This is part of a group of conversations with the college place coaches of this 12 months’s Bears draft picks.
What type of participant are the Bears getting in Tyrique?
They’re getting an aggressive, edgy, multifaceted participant. There’s some untapped potential even this far into points. He’s nonetheless rising in his craft, nonetheless as I see it, he’s able to help in quite a few positions, which clearly supplies worth at that diploma. However he’s going to be fiery. He’s going to compete his ass off when the ball is inside the air. He’s going to be bodily on the extent of assault. He’s going to know the place he should line up — and all people else spherical him. Simply holistically an outstanding soccer participant.
He talked about he and Bears coach Matt Eberflus talked about him being old school by means of his physicality. What did you see from him in that regard?
Yeah, I consider he would slot in inside the old-school days of no chin straps and no face masks. He’s a tough little one, and he’s not contact-shy the least bit. That’s refreshing to see, notably on the nook place. Typically they label these guys as of late as safety corners, and he’s not that. In reality, he most certainly has merely as a whole lot of a safety capacity set whereas having fun with nook as I’ve seen since I’ve been instructing. It could possibly be truthful to say it’s worded the suitable method should you occur to would label him as an old-school, form of throwback participant by means of his psychological make-up and physicality of the game.
You talked about he hasn’t reached his full potential however. What do you see as his subsequent steps in his development?
The psychological aspect is on a regular basis one factor it’s possible you’ll get larger at. In order that’s on a regular basis going to be there mentally. However I consider nook is a spot that in case your method is lacking you could be uncovered. And he does a extraordinarily, really good job of having fun with through method, nonetheless there’ll doubtless be some events the place he’ll get on himself because of probably he’s inconsistent by means of a method he’s attempting, whether or not or not or not it’s a bounce jam on the road of scrimmage or a feather method on the road of scrimmage or coming out of the break house. I merely suppose technically as a nook you probably can on a regular basis proceed to clean up your craft. I consider he’s no utterly completely different. However I moreover suppose there’s upside by means of having fun with slot nook and doubtless at safety, too, and within the occasion that they’ve been to ever put him there, I do suppose that because of he doesn’t have that a whole lot of a physique of labor that he would proceed to develop in that and get larger all the whereas. As a result of he hadn’t carried out that place technically for us outside of sub packages, nonetheless he’s succesful in my opinion.
In your 12 months with him at Miami, did you feel like he grew?
Oh, yeah. … A 12 months prior to now, I don’t know that he was being talked about inside the first or second rounds. However since getting proper right here — and that’s not for me to toot my horn — he’s labored his butt off to make it happen. However he has gotten larger all the whereas. You possibly can see the event from the day we started camp to the ultimate recreation. By no means glorious, correct? However on a regular basis working to be there and positively progress between the time we started and the time he purchased out the door.
The Bears talked about he’d most certainly start off at outside nook. However you suppose he’s capable of having fun with inside the slot and at safety on the NFL diploma?
A bit bit little little bit of his background: When he was on the College of Georgia, he carried out nickel. So he’s already carried out it … and had some success as a slot nook as an actual freshman for Georgia. Once I purchased proper right here to the College of Miami, he was having fun with nook, which clearly he carried out correctly there as correctly. So he has a physique of labor at every positions. Any time you play nickel, you and the safety behind you’re really tied in, so the pure improvement is that if a person can play nickel, he must on the very least know what the safety is doing, being that these two are interchangeable parts and work collectively. So I positively suppose alongside along with his tempo, dimension and physicality that it could be no downside for him to maneuver once more to play safety. We didn’t do that with him because of he was worth additional to us being outside on the nook place. However had I had a roster the place I felt good about one different nook having fun with at that place, it may not have been hateful to maneuver him once more to play and have the power to overlap the sector as correctly.
What’s he like off the sector?
Actually solely a homebody. A few of our youthful guys used to mess with him (about it). … He doesn’t exit a complete bunch. You’d suppose typical Miami little one, probably dangle round, have an outstanding time. He’s within the dwelling hanging out. He has a sister who has just some children. He would help his sister with elevating them. Has a complete lot of family on this house, so spent a complete lot of time spherical them. I can’t recall a time that anyone would say he had ever similtaneously loads stepped proper right into a social event. In phrases of the soccer aspect, he’s not very outspoken. He’s not quiet each. He spoke when spoken to. However he’s not a loud, rah-rah man. He’s additional practically being quiet, shutting up and dealing.
Do you’ve got a favorite recreation or second of his that stood out to you?
I’m most certainly going to wish to say the Virginia Tech recreation. It was a extraordinarily gradual start for us. We weren’t having fun with as correctly. It was the first time I really seen him make a mature switch and type of seize the group and get after them just a bit bit on the sideline by means of merely guaranteeing the eye self-discipline is true, guaranteeing they’re making the fitting communication and checks and whatnot. I assumed that was cool to see because of coming out of Georgia the knock on him was his administration ability wasn’t there, so to see that half flourish and proceed to develop all by the season from that point on, I consider he felt, what, ‘That is my unit, and I’ve began working to steer these guys.’ And he was ready to take motion.
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Originally posted 2023-05-21 11:38:11.