Gervon Dexter chicagobears.com
Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune on the Bears latest acquisition at cornerback:
Physically, Clark Phillips III projects as a slot cornerback, but the majority of his experience in Atlanta the last three seasons came on the outside.
He was competing to be the Falcons nickel back in 2025, but a triceps injury wound up limiting him to one game. The Bears acquired the 5-foot-9, 185-pounder and a fifth-round pick Sunday for defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr.
Phillips played in 27 games in his first two seasons with the Falcons, getting 821 snaps. We’ll have to see what the coaches say about how he’ll be used.
“I liked him coming out of Utah in 2023 as a nickel,” one pro scout said. “Kind of twitchy and he played downhill with some juice. Willing tackler and competed and had decent speed. He struggled to stay connected downfield, though, and that’s where his length — his arms are less than 30 inches — showed up.”
I loved this trade by the Bears. Dexter has done next to nothing in the NFL after the Bears took him in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft as a barely servicable rotation player.
Ian Cunningham, the current Falcons GM obviously liked Dexter when he was assistant GM with the Bears. So the Bears found the one team in the NFL that might have given them a 5th round pick for Dexter, let alone a player to go along with it.
If Clark Phillips contributes any depth at all at slot cornerback this year, I’d say the Bears got a steal.