Receivers Must Rate High in Bears Offseason

When free agency begins and the draft is on deck for the Bears, there will be a great outcry to obtain receivers for Justin Fields.

There needs to be.

The lack of any pass rush whatsoever will likely override this need in early rounds, and free agency looks right now like a total bust for free agents because the best who were scheduled to come available have long since signed long-term contracts.

There is no doubt the Bears need help for Justin Fields in the form of one very dependable go-to receiver to pair with Darnell Mooney. Cole Kmet does not count. Tight ends by and large are not deep threats.

The Bears defense saw what happens if a team has two excellent wide receivers when they faced Miami, and again Sunday against the Eagles. Fields needs someone who is a real threat to team with Mooney, and that's why this knee injury currently plaguing wide receiver Chase Claypool is a real problem.

This should be when Claypool is gaining the kind of understanding of the offense that comes with playing in it and not just looking at a playbook. He won't get that kind of practice until OTAs, and even then it's not like playing in it in a live game.

Throughout this season, the Bears receiver corps has been Mooney and whoever else could scrape together a catch or two.

When Mooney was still playing before his season-ending ankle injury against the Jets, Equanimeous St. Brown had more than two catches in a game once. Dante Pettis did it twice.

No other receiver did it.

Since Mooney's injury, St. Brown and Claypool went over two catches in the Packers game. But because Mooney is done it wasn't like they had his usual five to seven receptions and then more than two by Claypool and St. Brown. Besides that, Claypool had only 28 yards for his five receptions.

It's a receiver corps without much pop, and everyone knew it going into the season. It might be more potent than anyone knows with Claypool, but there's no way to be sure while he's hurt.

After Sunday's game ended and Fields had run for his 1,000th yard of the season, he laughed at the suggestion he could give this kind of rushing performance every year.

"I don't plan to rush for a thousand yards every year, yeah," he said with a big smile and somehow keeping from rolling his eyes.

Fields' idea, of course, is that the passing game gets better and he's not running around as much in the future. Those leg cramps are no fun.

"I think we're going to keep getting better," Fields said. "For me, I've been in the league for two years. I learned two offenses in two years. I think the more I get comfortable with that offense, I think we're just going to keep getting better as an offense, as a team."

Think how much better it can be with another year in the attack and with real receivers.

Fields rarely ran at Ohio State and said that again last week. That's because he had NFL rookie Chris Olave (63 catches for New Orleans) and NFL rookie Garrett Wilson (67 catches, NY Jets) as pass targets.

Then he came to the NFL and his receivers weren't as good with the Bears.

It's the tough choice facing Ryan Poles for free agency and the draft—get better on the lines defensively, and even offensively—or get more receiver help. They have the money to address it all but the talent pool might not be there.

The game-by-game catch totals showing almost no wide receivers with more than two receptions in a game besides Mooney have to weigh down heavily on the receiver side.

It better be a special defensive or offensive lineman if they're going to ignore wide receiver again this year.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven