While addressing what still needs to get cleaned up for the Bears and their coming practice and preseason game at Cincinnati, coach Ben Johnson's comment bordered on deflective.

"I'm excited to go down to Cincinnati, and they've got a lot of new talent on defense that we're going  to have to be on our Ps and Qs if we want to have success against," Johnson said. "That, to me, is going to help us really shape where we're at as an offense right now.”

The shaping or exposure is really going to come on the other side of the ball. Perhaps Johnson was just being a bit protective of the troubled side of the ball.

Facing the Bengals' array of talented receivers and quarterback Joe Burrow are the likes of Marlen Sewell, Beanie Bishop Jr., Anthony Johnson Jr., Skyler Thomas, William Wright and don't forget Deantre Prince, who signed on Monday.

The Bears' injuries in the secondary started before training camp with Kyler Gordon and have increased. They've had to go to the discard pile just to get enough camp bodies to get through practices. Now the camp bodies are looking like players who need to contribute with starters.

Gordon seems a mystery, but Johnson on Tuesday said "there's a plan and he is working toward that plan." The plan right now is rehab from a calf injury, Johnson said, but there is no timeline.

Tyrique Stevenson didn't practice Monday or play on Saturday, and his status is uncertain. They finally do have Cam Lewis back, a backup who has been thrust into a starting safety or slot role. They can take their pick of the spot here because Elijah Hicks, Coby Bryant, Xavier Woods and Gordon went out and Bryant won't be back until December, if then. Woods did return for a full practice on Tuesday.

The Dennis Allen question again

A few weeks ago questions arose about the way defensive coordinator Dennis Allen uses defensive backs, because he had a history of DBs being hurt in New Orleans.

The Bears on Tuesday are in Day 22 since reporting for training camp. They have had 10 transactions involving defensive backs already, either waiving a player or signing one. This doesn't include players put on injured reserve or physically unable to perform.

They signed Prince, Bishop, Sewell, Woods, Brandon Hill, William Wright and Brandon Hill and waived Hill, KC Eziomume and Gervarrius Owens since camp began, and as the list of injured starters or second-team players grew.

That being said, this was no isolated. Through the same number of days in training camp last year, they had the same number of defensive backs either signed or waived. The signees were Mark Perry, Kaleb Hayes, Mekhi Garner, Millard Bradford, Alex Cook, and Tre Flowers. Those waived were Cook, Tarvarius Moore, Ameer Speed and Major Burns.

The Bears had injury concerns in the secondary last year but not quite in the numbers like this training camp. Their real injury issues came as the regular season was beginning, except for Jaylon Johnson's groin issue. Then he had another when the regular season began. But they managed to keep their safeties largely intact throughout the season.

Does Allen do something with his defense or with demands for DBs to cause these issues? This isn't easy to say at this point.

Are the practices too physical?

"There are things that you can't control sometimes," Johnson said. "We turn the dial every single day. We look at what we're doing, how we're doing it and we always adjust and we're going to continue to do that.

Consider this though: In 2022, when Matt Eberflus was coach and GM Ryan Poles was just starting out, they had half the number of transactions involving DBsd at this point in camp as they've had now. And this was with a team still forming its first roster under new direction.

This isn't the half of it.

Is it really luck?

In 2023, at this point in camp they hadn't made a single transaction involving a DB.

In 2024, Eberflus' final year directing the team and essentially the defense, they also hadn't made a single transaction with DBS at this point in training camp.

More attention now will get turned to running back, where they lost two in one day, choosing to cut Coleman Bennett while Kyle Monangai suffered an injury that could put him at risk for missing the opener. They'll have to sign one, if not two backs.

But the secondary issue is the primary one. Bishop made an impression on Johnson and coaches by making two interceptions in his first week and first preseason game with the team. They're going to need more of these new DBs to step up in Cincinnati or it will get ugly facing Burrow.

If it can't be said they are asking too much from their secondary and players are getting hurt, then at the very least it looks like they're extremely selective about who they have as backups. This would be something Dennis Allen and secondary coach Al Harris are doing, but Harris never had a history of losing all his DBs in Dallas as an assistant.

Camp and preseason go on and the Bears' transactions just keep on adding up.

It can all add up to problems if none of this reverses soon with the regular season less than four weeks away.

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