Gnawing Roster Issues for Bears

As the draft draws closer and the Bears address their big needs and concerns, there are less obvious roster issues also involved.

These aren't the big questions, like can they get a right tackle to keep Justin Fields from spending half his day laying on the turf or can they find an edge rusher so a rookie safety doesn't have to lead them in sacks again with four?

Rather, these are gnawing, biting questions existing underneath the surface, the kind that eventual compound flaws obvious to everyone.

Here are five potential Bears headaches waiting to happen if they go unaddressed in the draft or remaining free agency.

1. Backs in the Passing Game

They obviously lost a huge asset in their passing game when David Montgomery left. He could pass block. He was called on to do it on 282 plays the last four years according to Pro Football Focus stats. He knew who to pass block and he could catch passes out of the backfield, sometimes the way a receiver would. The catch he made downfield against Atlanta on a throw Justin Fields made moving out of the pocket was an example of what Montgomery can do that other backs can't.

Both Khalil Herbert an D'Onta Foreman say they can catch passes. They both say they can block. Both are optimistic, which is good. Foreman has been targeted 31 times and has been in the league since 2017. Herbert has been targeted 28 times in two seasons. PFF last year gave Foreman the worst grade in the league as a pass blocker among the top 60 backs. It was a 14.8 grade out of 100. Herbert wasn't entirely bad at it and ranked 29th of 60 backs, but just hasn't done it much with 70 pass blocking attempts in two seasons.

The Bears brought in running back Travis Homer partly because he can do these things and it got him a label as a third-down type. But he hasn't done it a lot. He was on the field for 14.1%, 19.9% and 16.7% of Seattle offensive plays the last three years. So saying he's an answer is only really potentially true.

It could be in the passing game where the Bears most miss Montgomery and might need an answer in the draft.

2. Who Returns Punts?

The Bears might tell you they have plenty of candidates for punt returner. Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower last year said anyone who has returned the ball can be a candidate for punt or kick returner. We saw how that worked out with Velus Jones Jr. muffing punts even though he seems adept enough at returning kicks.

Josh Blackwell insisted he could do it based on college when asked about it last year, but he said the Bears hadn't even talked about this until a while after he got there and Philadelphia hadn't even considered using him that way. He had 25 returns at Temple for a 9.2-yard average, or about what Dante Pettis averaged last year. Yet, the Bears never put him back there in a game last year. They also included Jackson as an option but really, do you want a safety who already had a season-ending foot injury back returning punts?

The ideal option would be to find a receiver or defensive back who would be a backup and special teams player always active on game day who also returns punts.

Homer never returned a punt in college or the NFL. He was a personal protector on punt team but not a returner on punt return. The ideal person would have been Jones if he could have fielded punts, but that's not an easy talent to acquire.

"A totally different skillset," Hightower said near season's end. "It's really good if you can be a dual returner, but it's harder to catch punts than it is kickoffs.

"A kickoff is an end over end ball, as you guys know. Guys catch those a lot more. Hangtime is different on punts; they can fall different ways, a different trajectory on the ball, a different spin on the ball depending on which guy’s kicking. A punter can do a lot of different things with the football versus what a kicker can do."

3. Faulty Line Switches

On Monday, Teven Jenkins confirmed in a tweet he was the one moving to left guard, although it had already been reported by ESPN's Courtney Cronin and the Tribune staff during the owners meetings that he was the guard moving and not newly acquired Nate Davis.

The Bears are moving an awful lot of people around on the offensive line. They're putting Cody Whitehair back to starting center at age 31 after he hadn't done it since mid-season 2020. Can he do that now?

Jenkins is no certainty at left guard as he hasn't played it in the NFL and he's also missed 15 games the last two seasons resulting from injuries.

It would seem the Bears have turned interior offensive line into a need position for this draft when it probably didn't need to be one considering the personnel they already do have. Considering tackle already was their main problem on the offensive line, they didn't need another concern with this group.

4. Nickel Need

When Kyler Gordon made interceptions twice in his last three games it had the Bears saying he had improved but what it actually may have shown was they had him playing the wrong position all along. His play was much better outside than when they had tried using him in the slot. If they want to maximize true value from that pick they should use Gordon on the outside and try to find another nickel, but not some street free agent type. They need to find a legitimate nickel cornerback for a very important job in their coverage schemes.

5. Is There a Third Tight End Plan?

They have two tight ends who had 50 catches or more last year so they're well stocked here, but teams need three tight ends for 13-personnel packages that use three tight ends. All but five teams in the league use three tight ends 7% or less over the last five years according to Sharp Football Statistics, but when they do use three it's often a crucial situation like goal line or third down. So that third tight end is important. Would the Bears use a draft pick for this? The two undrafted rookie tight ends they had last year, Chase Allen and Rober Tonges, had one passing target between them so anticipating one of them will step up into third role might be overly optimistic.

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