Chicago Bears rookie fourth-round pick Nick Kwiatkoski is doing his best to help fans get over the short-term losses of their two starting veteran inside linebackers. Second-year linebacker John Timu is making fans want them back as soon as possible.

The younger defender has stepped into the starting role and began to establish himself in the middle of the defense while his co-starter put together another forgettable performance against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Kwiatkoski did a great job of remaining disciplined in coverage even as Blaine Gabbert extended the play. He never lost track of the receiver in his area, keeping an eye on the quarterback while remaining close enough in coverage to get a hand on the pass to bat it away.

He could have abandoned his coverage and joined Timu in pursuit of Gabbert, but instead Kwiatkoski was able to prevent the completion and force a third down.

Timu, on the other hand, was asked to cover running back Shaun Draughn one-on-one on the outside in man coverage and nearly gave up a deep touchdown. Colin Kaepernick terribly under-threw this pass to his open receiver, enough that it hit Timu in the helmet to prevent what should have been an easy completion.

Draughn had room to run, and the second-year linebacker was lucky that this didn’t go down as a touchdown against him. He certainly would have had an opportunity to intercept this pass, if he had the awareness to turn around and find the ball coming his way.

In run defense too, Kwiatkoski displayed great discipline and football intelligence to understand that his gap closed and flow to the running back instead.

The rookie linebacker essentially baited the running back DuJuan Harris into taking the cut-back by hiding behind the left tackle, popping out to make the tackle for a loss in the redzone as his teammates gave him a hand.

Timu lacked that same awareness in run defense as he failed to hold down his gap and get off his block. His responsibility on the play was the A-gap, to the inside of the right guard, because Akiem Hicks had the B-gap to his left.

The linebacker instead tried to keep an eye on both lanes, covering neither of them and allowing Draughn to break free at the second level as he ran away from the Timu’s extended arms.

The difference in quality at the two inside linebacker positions was clear as the rookie emerged as an asset while the more experienced of the two proved to be a liability.

Jerrell Freeman is scheduled to return from his suspension for Week 16, and when he does, it is clear that Kwiatkoski will be starting next to him while Timu returns to the bench. In the meantime, the rookie should keep picking up the slack.