General manager Ryan Poles has made several moves to boost the Chicago Bears secondary since he took over in January 2022. In last year’s draft, he added cornerback Kyler Gordon and safety Jaquan Brisker in the second round. And late last month, he used another second-round pick on Tyrique Stevenson, a 6-foot, 198-pound cornerback who played two seasons at Georgia and two at Miami.

Now Stevenson is expected to compete for playing time at corner with Gordon and Jaylon Johnson.

Miami secondary coach Jahmile Addae coached Stevenson for his final season with the Hurricanes, during which Stevenson had two interceptions and nine passes defended.

Addae spoke with the Tribune this month to share his experiences working with Stevenson. Here’s that interview, edited for clarity.

Note: This is part of a series of conversations with the college position coaches of this year’s Bears draft picks.

What kind of player are the Bears getting in Tyrique?

They’re getting an aggressive, edgy, multifaceted player. There’s some untapped potential even this far into things. He’s still growing in his craft, but as I see it, he’s able to help in multiple positions, which obviously adds worth at that level. But he’s going to be fiery. He’s going to compete his ass off when the ball is in the air. He’s going to be physical at the point of attack. He’s going to know where he needs to line up — and everyone else around him. Just holistically a good football player.

He said he and Bears coach Matt Eberflus talked about him being old school in terms of his physicality. What did you see from him in that regard?

Yeah, I think he would fit in in the old-school days of no chin straps and no face masks. He’s a tough kid, and he’s not contact-shy at all. That’s refreshing to see, especially at the corner position. Sometimes they label these guys these days as coverage corners, and he’s not that. In fact, he probably has just as much of a safety skill set while playing corner as I’ve seen since I’ve been coaching. It would be fair to say it’s worded the right way if you would label him as an old-school, sort of throwback player in terms of his mental makeup and physicality of the game.

You mentioned he hasn’t reached his full potential yet. What do you see as his next steps in his development?

The mental aspect is always something you can get better at. So that’s always going to be there mentally. But I think corner is a position that if your technique is lacking you can be exposed. And he does a really, really good job of playing through technique, but there will be some times where he will get on himself because maybe he’s inconsistent in terms of a technique he’s trying, whether it be a jump jam at the line of scrimmage or a feather technique at the line of scrimmage or coming out of the break area. I just think technically as a corner you can always continue to clean up your craft. I think he’s no different. But I also think there’s upside in terms of playing slot corner and possibly at safety, too, and if they were to ever put him there, I do think that because he doesn’t have that much of a body of work that he would continue to grow in that and get better all the while. Because he hadn’t played that position technically for us outside of sub packages, but he’s capable in my opinion.

In your year with him at Miami, did you feel like he grew?

Oh, yeah. … A year ago, I don’t know that he was being talked about in the first or second rounds. But since getting here — and that’s not for me to toot my horn — he’s worked his butt off to make it happen. But he has gotten better all the while. You can see the progression from the day we started camp to the last game. Never perfect, right? But always working to be there and definitely growth between the time we started and the time he got out the door.

The Bears said he’d probably start off at outside corner. But you think he’s capable of playing in the slot and at safety at the NFL level?

A little bit of his background: When he was at the University of Georgia, he played nickel. So he’s already played it … and had some success as a slot corner as a true freshman for Georgia. When I got here to the University of Miami, he was playing corner, which obviously he played well there as well. So he has a body of work at both positions. Any time you play nickel, you and the safety behind you are really tied in, so the natural progression is that if a guy can play nickel, he should at least know what the safety is doing, being that those two are interchangeable parts and work together. So I definitely think with his speed, size and physicality that it would be no problem for him to move back to play safety. We didn’t do that with him because he was worth more to us being outside at the corner position. But had I had a roster where I felt good about another corner playing at that position, it would not have been hateful to move him back to play and be able to overlap the field as well.

What’s he like off the field?

Really just a homebody. Some of our younger guys used to mess with him (about it). … He doesn’t go out a whole bunch. You would think typical Miami kid, maybe hang out, have a good time. He is in the house hanging out. He has a sister who has a few children. He would help his sister with raising them. Has a lot of family in this area, so spent a lot of time around them. I can’t recall a time that anyone would say he had ever even as much stepped into a social event. In terms of the football aspect, he’s not very outspoken. He’s not quiet either. He spoke when spoken to. But he’s not a loud, rah-rah guy. He’s more just about being quiet, shutting up and working.

Do you have a favorite game or moment of his that stood out to you?

I’m probably going to have to say the Virginia Tech game. It was a really slow start for us. We weren’t playing as well. It was the first time I really saw him make a mature move and kind of grab the group and get after them a little bit on the sideline in terms of just making sure the eye discipline is right, making sure they’re making the proper communication and checks and whatnot. I thought that was cool to see because coming out of Georgia the knock on him was his leadership ability wasn’t there, so to see that part flourish and continue to grow throughout the season from that point on, I think he felt, you know what, ‘This is my unit, and I’ve got to work to lead these guys.’ And he was able to do so.

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