Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears: 5 matchups to watch

3. Josh Jones vs Tarik Cohen

During the draft, the Packers selected linebacker Oren Burks out of Vanderbilt to help cover athletic backs out of the backfield. Burks has struggled to receive regular playing time, which makes sense because he is still learning this new position. This season, the Packers have struggled against bulkier running backs, such as Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson and Frank Gore of the Miami Dolphins but not as much to scat backs.

Tarik Cohen has been the Bears’ best skill-position player this season. He brings an element of pass-catching and big-play ability that the offense lacks from fellow back Jordan Howard. Howard is more of a straight-line pure power back, while Cohen just brings a completely different element to this offense. He has put up some big stat lines this season, and the Packers have struggled to contain backs like him in the past.

Josh Jones has earned playing time due to the elite athleticism that gives him the ability to cover players like Cohen that the rest of the linebackers can’t cover. He’ll be the one tasked with covering Cohen on a lot of his routes out of the backfield, and, it wouldn’t be the worst idea for the Packers to have Jones shadow Cohen around the field. If the Packers are going to get beat by someone, they can’t let it be Cohen.