This Unheralded Bears Reserve Got Big Praise for His Preseason

The Chicago Bears training camp and preseason thus far can be concentrated across a small handful of names that have hogged the spotlight. Roquan Smith and his holdout were a central focus. That is thankfully over. Then it's Mitch Trubisky and his hopeful growth in the new offense under head coach Matt Nagy. Last but not least it's the closely-monitored health of edge rusher Leonard Floyd. On the list of names deserving attention, has anybody once brought up DeAndre Houston-Carson? Nope. Why should they? He's been a backup his entire career. A "lowly" sixth round pick out of William & Mary whose best hope was to carve out a career on special teams. That looked like the direction the young safety was taking. Then, as often can happen in the NFL, it seems a switch has been flipped. While it's preseason and making assumptions off such games is dangerous, the fact is Houston-Carson has been showing up around the football more than ever. It's not an isolated case either as he's done it through two games. Pro Football Focus recognized him as one of the top performing safeties in the league through the first official week of preseason.

DeAndre Houston-Carson is making Bears safety position interesting

It's not a roster spot that Houston-Carson is battling for at this point. He's already established as one of the teams' better special teams performers. No his goal is aimed much higher at perhaps challenging for a starting job on defense. That might seem futile to some with Eddie Jackson and Adrian Amos in place, right? Is it though? People forget Amos was benched last year to start the season. Only an injury to Quinten Demps helped him get back on the field and he managed to play well enough to keep the job. However, this doesn't suddenly make him a star. Amos still has the same drawback he's had since being drafted. He can't force turnovers. In 30 NFL starts across three seasons, he has one interception. Just one, and that was off a wacky pass deflection. The fact is Amos is a weak point in coverage. Houston-Carson is trying to show coaches that this is not the case for him. The evidence is certainly piling up.

[video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DHC.mp4"][/video] It's not just in games either. Houston-Carson has been doing the same thing in practice too. So this isn't just some fluke occurrence that can happen sometimes. He's definitely showed marked improvement in every aspect of his game. The question now is whether the Bears will give him enough wiggle room over the next three weeks to challenge Amos for that starting job. Smart money says that's unlikely as the Bears coaches seem content with their lineup for the time being. Even so, Houston-Carson is putting himself into a position where the leash on Amos will be much shorter than first anticipated. If he regresses from where he was last year, he could again lose his job. This time to somebody with better long-term prospects.