Bears a Disappointing 23rd in Rick Gosselin Special Teams Rankings
The Bears made a complete turnaround in a few key areas of special teams last season.
It didn't allow them to achieve a successful special teams season statistically.
Maven's Rick Gosselin established a special teams ranking system 41 years ago while with the Dallas Morning News and the system is still in use today. The final rankings for the 2019 season were released Monday and the Bears finished a disappointing 23rd overall.
They wound up second on the list in kick return with the addition of Cordarrelle Patterson at 26.6 yards a return one year after they finished last in kickoff returns. As a result, they finished second in the league in average starting point following kick returns at 26.7 They were sixth in punt returns with Tarik Cohen at 9.2 yards a return.
Even erratic early field-goal kicking from Eddy Pineiro didn't keep the Bears from finishing 15th in field goal percentage. As a result, Pineiro has won the job for next year. It's a far cry from last year when they spent the offseason trying to dig up a kicker with a national search.
"Going through that process over the summer months, reflecting back on that now, that’s something we feel proud of," Bears general manager Ryan Pace said of the kicking situation. "That was a collective effort with our coaches and our scouts to thoroughly go through that.
"The goal the whole time was to hit on a young kicker that we can grow, and we feel like we’ve done that with Eddy. He finished the season strong, he made 11 straight field goals. We feel like he’s going to continue to get better."
It was hardly a complete success for special teams, considering the controversy caused over where to spot the ball for a failed game-winning field goal try against the Chargers.
When the season ended, the Bears fired special teams assistant Brock Olivo and it's possibly a reflection of a communication problem.
As good as the Bears were returning kicks and better at kicking, they were almost as bad at covering kicks. They finished 26th overall at 25 yards a return.
It's partly the result of all their defensive injuries. It caused reserves to play as starters and lose special teams snaps, requiring practice squad players or those at the far end of the roster to make plays on special teams.
Besides having trouble covering, they also weren't very good at kicking off, finishing 20th in distance at 62.2 yards.
When the Bears were getting set to play Kansas City and face former special teams coordinator Dave Toub, Tabor's old boss in Chicago, he was reminded how the special teams used to finish in the top 10 annually in overall ranking.
"That's something that was instilled in me when I was here the first time and we're chasing that right now, to get it back to where it's supposed to be," Tabor said.
They've still got a long way to go, even if they've made progress in a few areas.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
