Bear Digest

Chicago Bears report card at the bye reflects Caleb Williams' rise

Analysis: With Williams developing and Rome Odunze stepping up, the Bears offense has shown enough to help them establish a winning streak and higher marks.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams surveys the situation on a pass play against the Raiders in the Bears' 25-24 win.
Caleb Williams surveys the situation on a pass play against the Raiders in the Bears' 25-24 win. | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's a strange mix to the start of this Bears season and their report card for the games played prior to their bye reflects this.

It's as if the Bears are a partically constructed home with the residents living in it already. The dry wall is going up but they've taken up residence.

Ben Johnson came to Chicago with a reputation for a passing offense based off the running attack. At the bye week, the offense is 19th and that's good by Chicago standards. More importantly, they're 12th in scoring.

Yet, they have only been able to run the ball in small doses and have yet to really break off a long run. Their passing attack has flourished anyway, ranking 11th with Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze the chief reason.

On the other side of the ball, they've been even worse against the run than last year and that didn't seem possible before the season. Their pass rush has been no better and even worse despite two key changes on the line.

According to those two problems, their pass defense should be struggling as well. If you can't stop the run, teams will naturally be able to pass on you as they run play-fakes.

They haven't. Even with a pass rush producing only a few sacks and with substitutes playing two key secondary positions and weakside linebacker, the Bears pass defense has kept them in games.

Here's a quarter score or grade of where they stand as they look to  start preparations for a rematch many of them would have wanted a week after last year's game -- the infamous Fail Mary battle in Washington.

Quarterback: B

Caleb Williams hasn't achieved the consistency he needs to hit Johnson's 70% completions total. He'll still fail to recognize receivers coming into open windows -- mainly DJ Moore it seems -- and isn't fast enough to check it down. Williams has gotten slower to get rid of the ball, in fact. NFL Next Gen Stats puts him at 3.17 seconds. The only QB slower to get the ball out is Justin Field (3.24). This probably shouldn't be surprising because Jared Goff was never fast to get rid of it in Detroit when Johnson was in Detroit and he still isn't as only five QBs have been slower. It's partly because he's always throwing downfield. Only Russell Wilson has a higher percentage of passes 20 yards or more downfield than Williams' 34%. Nevertheless, Williams rated best in the league against the blitz according to Pro Football Focus, and has been clutch. He owns a 106.5 passer rating on third downs and 96.1 rating in fourth quarters. His 28 career touchdowns to eight interception says progress on a high level. Getting the ball out quicker and shorter will let him get more yards after the catch, a key to Johnson's offense.

Receivers: B

Odunze couldn't have stepped up better after Keenan Allen was allowed to leave in free agency. He's the only receiver with more than one touchdown catch and the only one in the NFL with at least one in every game. Moore has been effective when he is targeted. Currently he's only been targeted 21 times, third most on the team and one less than slot Olamide Zaccheaus. Tight end Cole Kmet has had a rare poor start in terms of catches/targets (7 of 16) but has caught passes farther downfield or turned it upfield more. If rookie Colston Loveland can get involved at some point and the running game begins to click the field could open wide for the attack.

Running backs: C-

They haven't had the breakaway plays from D'Andre Swift like he produced at times last year, partly because of the lack of blocking. He has just five runs of 10 yards or more and none longer than 20. He has broken only one tackle and has one forced missed tackle while ranking 25th in yards after contact (87). What he's done at a high level is pass block. Swift is the No. 1 ranked pass blocker among backs in the NFL and it's part of the reason their passing game has looked better. However, let's not get carried away with that when the running game has been so poor, rating 24th and 25th in yards per carry.

Kyle Monangai has barely just begun to show what he can do and Roschon Johnson hasn't been 100% after a foot injury until very recently. It's amazing Williams ranks eighth in play-action passing yards when their threat from the running game has been so meager.

Offensive line: C-

Starting Sunday, the Bears were 10th lowest in average sacks allowed. Being sacked sevn times is a tremendous improvement to when they were giving up 50 or more sacks four straight seasons. However, Williams had been hurried 20 times already when he threw, the most in the league. So they need better pass blocking, largely from the tackles. The run blocking hasn't been much to get excited about. The league average for yards gained before contact is 2.5 and Swift has only been able to go 2.0 before contact, 28th in the league. Braxton Jones' play has been poor enough as he recovers from surgery that he appears to have lost his job to undrafted Theo Benedet. On the other hand, they have managed to rank fourth at third-down conversion percentage (45.45%) and 15th in red zone offense. They also blocked well enough for a key 19-play scoring drive in the third quarter against Dallas.

Defensive line: D+

The horrendous 6.1 yards allowed per run far more than offsets what have been average overall team pass rush numbers. Too many chunk runs allowed has to be blamed first on Andrew Billings, Montez Sweat, Gervon Dexter, Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo need to be off of blockers and upfield attack faster than they have. The pas1s pressure has been surprisingly high despite their lack of actual sacks. They rank 14th in pressure percentage despite being 29th in blitz percentage. The bottom line is their five total sacks is not enough and someone needs to start closing out on pass rush.

Linebackers: C+

Tremaine Edmunds' pass defense has been a major component in the Bears ranking No. 1 on third down defensively. A 75.1 passer rating against is outstanding for a linebacker but he needs to drop the tackles-missed percentage from 9.1%, which is higher than he had last year. Give Noah Sewell plenty of credit for stepping in at weakside linebacker when he hasn't really played their in past years, but his 88.2% completions allowed and 134.1 passer rating against in coverage reflects his inexperience at that position. Sewell played weakside line a strongside linebacker would, which makes sense because that's where he's been playing for the most part. Rookie Ruben Hyppolite has yet to make an impact. The Bears can't get T.J. Edwards back fast enough because he can help solidify the run defense.

Secondary: B

Considering the loss of Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon through four games, no one can be displeased with the coverage overall. Nahshon Wright and Nick McCloud stood in and struggled at times while Tyrique Stevenson had three stronger effort and both safeties Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker locked it down in back. They can hang their hats on the best third-down defense in the league and seven interceptions, but ranking last in touchdown percentage allowed and next to last in completion percentage allowed shows there is plenty of room for improvement.

Special teams: B+

The only real glitches to date were a missed Cairo Santo field goal and partially blocked punt against the Vikings in the opener. He's made everything since then, including two for 50 or longer. Devin Duvernay has a higher average for punt returns (11.4) than any Bears regular return man since Jakeem Grant's Pro Bowl 2021 season. The blocked field goal by Josh Blackwell made them a .500 team instead of a losing one, while Tory Taylor recovered from a shaky start to look like the punter he was last year, if not better.

Coaching: B+

Ben Johnson's debut had its share of flawed decisions and he didn't seem to handle the emotional return to Detroit well but his play calling in the last two games in particular was outstanding. The decisive 19-play drive against Dallas was situational football at its best and showed Johnson will not give up on the run even when it struggles, as they ran 11 straight times. Dennis Allen has avoided going to too much pressure when it was obvious in training camp he wanted to use it. Injuries made it easy for him to give in and start blitzing more but he resisted and it let them produce their seven interceptions. The effective way Richard Hightower has coached special teams let players quickly diagnose on their own a long snapper flaw and it led to the blocked kick against the Raiders.

Overall: C+

Give them the + for their upward trend with a win in the last two games, but .500 is not where they want to ultimately be. They seem more organized now than at the outset, which makes sense because they needed time to get the systems up and running. What the Bears have been exceptionally strong at is situational football, such as third down or red zone. That reflects coaching. Look for better rushing average and lower rushing yards allowed as the season progresses and injured players return. A key will be whether they get the left tackle position operating effectively on offense and the defensive interior on defense.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.