Bears CB Kindle Vildor's Press Coverage Abilities and Study Habits are His Greatest Strengths

When the Chicago Bears selected Kindle Vildor with the 163rd overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Vildor’s defensive coordinator at Georgia Southern, Scot Sloan, knew that his former player had accomplished enough throughout his career to make it into the league.
“He played well in big games,” Sloan said. “The Clemson game, the Minnesota game, LSU, so he put the film out there against quality opponents. But then his Senior Bowl performance, just hearing the feedback from how well he did kind of gave you the indicator that he would get drafted.”
One of the main reasons why Kindle Vildor had so much success at Georgia Southern was because coach Sloan trusted him and allowed him to go against the opposing team’s No. 1 wide receiver.
“He was a guy that I never had to take the press card away from him and say, ‘Look, don’t go up and press this guy,’” Sloan said. “It didn’t matter if we were playing Clemson, LSU or whoever, I always had enough trust in him to know the down and distance, the situation of the game, the situation of what was going on or whether to press or to play off or whether to play catch man. That type of stuff.
“He was really good at getting in and out of his toolbox, but I think he has a strong comfort in getting up at the line of scrimmage, because there were times that may not have been an ideal press time, but he would get right up on there and press even some of the better wideouts we saw every week.”
Kindle made plenty of highlight plays during his time at Georgia Southern, but one stands out above the rest.
“One that really stood out was the interception he had against Clemson on the screen play,” Sloan said. “Because a lot of that was scouting report and film study. He jumped it so hard and so fast. I’m friends with several of those guys at Clemson, and I talked with them after the game. They asked, ‘Did he Gamble?,’ and I said, ‘No, that was scouting report driven and the kid had studied it and knew as soon he saw what he saw he could pull his trigger.’
“I think that interception just encompasses him as a person because he does take football serious. He will study film on his own. He will study his scouting report. It’s not just when he is on the field. He does all that stuff to prepare himself. To see him benefit and get an interception like that and what went into that interception that wasn’t just a game day interception. That was a week-long prep by him.”