Chief Bears Offensive Worries
Matt Eberflus had a few media people laughing after he was asked what he learned about quarterbacks that is applicable now from the situation he had been through with the Indianapolis Colts.
"What I learned in that situation was that Andrew Luck's really good," Eberflus wise-cracked. "He's a good player."
Or was. Luck, of course, retired at a Bears-Colts preseason game and the Colts had a different starting quarterback every year Eberflus was with the team. They went from Luck to Jacoby Brissett to Philip Rivers and then Carson Wentz.
"It was, it actually brought our team together more, because the adversity of having a different quarterback every single year like that, our team just got closer and closer and closer," Eberflus said. "Really that's a tribute to the leadership there."
The leaders he referred to were GM Chris Ballard and coach Frank Reich, but if that's what the Bears need to come together as a team then they're better off backbiting and playing like a bunch of "me" guys.
A revolving door of quarterbacks is not a situation Eberflus would want to face in Chicago. He has enough problems on the offensive side of the ball for now without worrying about shuffling or changing quarterbacks.
However, the lack of continuity involving the quarterback is one of the problems the Bears face in a different way and it is one of the greatest worries they'll have on offense heading into training camp.
Here are the biggest Bears offensive worries ranked with less than two weeks left until camp opens.
5. Tradition of Offensive Ineptitude
The Bear still have a starting quarterback, a few running backs, a tight end, one wide receiver and three or four offensive linemen who were part of the bad starting offense last year. Those players got experience playing with other offensive players who have left and were part of similar past offensive failures.
The tradition lives on. It's self-perpetuating.
The Bears have been a top-10 offense yardage-wise twice (2013, 2016) in the 16 years since Brian Urlacher's team went to the Super Bowl and lost to the Colts. They were a top-10 offense in points scored since then only twice (2013, 2018). In fact, those seasons just mentioned were the only times in the past 13 years they have even finished in the top half of the league in scoring or yardage.
It's not like the Bears had a strong tradition of offense before that, either.
In 29 years since Dave Wannstedt took over as head coach following Mike Ditka's firing, they've finished in the top half of the league in scoring seven times and in yardage five times.
There is also that one other dubious distinction they own as the only team never to throw for 4,000 yards in a season—12 games, 14 games, 16 games or now even for 17 games.
Does this weigh on a franchise, coaches and players? Well, it does on the fans. If it weighs on them, then they'll make it weigh on the players, coaches and front office.
If you don't think offensive self-image is a problem, explain why the Bears just hired Mike Wiley Jr. as the director of player development and mental skills. He's a counselor with a background in mental performance coaching.
The Bears didn't hire someone to stand in front of the team to say "Losing is a disease...as contagious as polio. Losing is a disease...as contagious as syphilis. Losing is a disease...as contagious as bubonic plague, attacking one but infecting all," like the mental "coach" for the New York Knights in the movie The Natural.
Instead, they got a professional who can actually help foster a positive attitude. They know this is an issue on offense and it always has been.
The Bears think they will fail on offense and usually do.
4. Luke Getsy's Inexperience
As much as people talk about Luke Getsy as a strategical offensive savior, they said the same things here about offensive coordinators Gary Crowton, Adam Gase and head coaches Matt Nagy and Marc Trestman.
No one ever said it about John Shoop or Terry Shea. When the Bears had a season of success from a coordinator, like Ron Turner or from Trestman, they couldn't sustain it.
Getsy hasn't had experience doing any of this at an NFL level. He called plays at Mississippi State one season after leaving the NFL and then returned to the Packers to a role as a position coach again. Besides that he was an offensive coordinator one year at West Virginia Wesleyan College and two years at Indiana University in Pennsylvania.
His only NFL play calls came in preseason. You probably could argue successfully that it's easier to get more experience at play-calling in Madden than by coaching NFL preseason games.
3. Sketchy Wide Receiver Talent
Ah yes, that foul odor in the room everyone has complained about since offseason began, but it is only third on our list of real concerns for the Bears on offense.
There are people who have caught passes. Darnell Mooney is a legitimate NFL starter and possibly No. 1 receiver after 142 catches in two years, the most ever by a drafted Bears wide receiver for the first two years. As a fifth-rounder, he has outperformed all but a handful of first-rounders and a second-rounder in his draft class so far, and that 2020 receiver class was supposed to be the first of two receiver classes for the ages.
Byron Pringle, when not performing death-defying stunts in automobiles, is not a bad receiver. His 43 catches in only a partial 2021 season showed this.
The top three pass catchers from last year are all back in tight end Cole Kmet and running back David Montgomery.
However, it's a problem when the next-best wide receiver hasn't played in the NFL—Velus Jones Jr.—and then after him they're talking about failed players-like N'Keal Harry, Equanimeous St. Brown, Dante Pettis, David Moore and Tajae Sharpe.
It really would not have been possible for them to improve much about their situation with receivers in the draft because they had no first-round pick and didn't select until after Christian Watson was taken. He was the classical X-type who could have helped, once he got experience at this level. And they could have taken Wan'Dale Robinson or John Metchie instead of Kyler Gordon, but their need for another starting cornerback was at least as great considering they finished last in the NFL in passer rating against in 2021. Besides, Metchie and Robinson are not classic X-type receivers and that's what they needed above all else. They could have taken Tyquan Thornton, George Pickens, Alec Pierce or Skyy Moore instead of safety Jaquan Brisker, but they didn't have a second starting safety and each of those four receivers have major question marks attached, much like the receiver they did draft in Round 3, Jones.
Not signing better free agent receivers was more a matter of the only ones worth signing being paid far too much, like Christian Kirk with the Jaguars. The Bears didn't have an excessive amount of cap space and spending it on a free agent receiver for three years who might be useless by next year when they have a first-round pick or can bring in a really expensive free agent next year when they have more cap space makes more sense.
They are what they are at receiver now and it's the proverbial stick they have to bite down on hard for this on-field surgical procedure known as Rebuilding Year No. 1.
2. The Wasted QB Year
It's only No. 2, but this is the quarterback continuity issue. It's not that the Bears are changing quarterbacks like Eberflus' Colts did. It's that the Bears have changed everything around their quarterback after his only season.
Justin Fields got only 10 starts, no real work with starting players in the offseason last year or in preseason and he was playing in a totally clueless offense.
Now, he truly is like Mitchell Trubisky was in Year 2 except with a little less starting experience thanks to COVID-19 and injuries.
Fields is a quarterback with a year's worth of experience. And it was a bad experience.
Will that ruin him or set him back to a point where Getsy needs to work harder to have him ready?
Can Getsy squeeze the Nagy out of Fields?
The Bears would have been better off last year firing Nagy at Thanksgiving time during the rumors about his departure just so they could have gotten Fields more time in an offense with someone else in charge who could aid better in his development this year, if there was such a person at Halas Hall.
Blame George McCaskey for not firing Nagy then.
1. Offensive Line Debacle
The situation at right guard is bleak and it could help make difficult learning experiences for young tackles even more difficult.
Bringing in D.J. Dozier was no real starting option at guard and even now there are a few free agents who could step in and be better than the player they're prepping there, Sam Mustipher. The best option might be just putting Mustipher at center, where he had some problems at times. Starting centers often need a year or two to get it down and it's possible Mustipher would be better now. Then they could put Lucas Patrick at right guard, as former Bears right guard Tom Thayer expertly suggested this week.
Then those inexperienced left and right tackles—whoever they might be—will have experienced players lining up next to them who can lend assistance. A right side of the line with Mustipher and either Larry Borom or Teven Jenkins on it sounds like a good reason to run the ball to the left.
Put Patrick next to either of the second-year tackles and he can be a steadying force on the right side. The same is true with Cody Whitehair at left guard and either of the two young tackles on the left side or even rookie left tackle Braxton Jones.
If they're not signing someone, they need to bring in the best guard who gets cut in roster cutdowns.
It does no good if Fields actually is able to play at a higher level but he can't set up to pass because he's being sacked, thanks to an inept line that not only is trying to learn how to play together but also is playing in a new blocking system.
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