Why the Bears Need to Produce an ID Card
Bears coach Matt Nagy was contemplating the impact of running an offense with two drastically different types of quarterbacks.
"I think for us it's something where, we gotta decide, OK, our identity," Nagy said, during the team's offseason work. "You talk about that every year."
Regardless of the quarterback, the Bears have seemed forever consumed with identity on offense under Nagy.
They talked about it last year and the previous year it endlessly consumed them while they struggled.
With training camp looming at the end of this month, the Bears will start work looking for an identity but this time it's not just on offense. They need this on every side of the football.
Perhaps it's for the best. Nagy was at his best in 2018 when he had a new team trying to establish an identity, and when no one really knew what kind of impact Khalil Mack would have on their defense.
The Offense
Last year they had more than one identity on offense because the running game worked when they switched blocking emphasis to outside zone and enjoyed success.
They switched personnel at the same time and it also involved putting the quarterback more under center than in the shotgun, while running more movement of the pocket or bootleg action. They became more of hybrid between the Kansas City West Coast attack Nagy brought and the popular Mike/Kyle Shananan style attack used by San Francisco, Green Bay, Tennessee and others.
What are they now?
The personnel looks different than when last year ended. They've apparently retained Sam Mustipher at center after the success he enjoyed, rising up the ranks from the practice squad. They ran minicamp with Cody Whitehair at left guard again. They had Germain Ifedi playing right tackle, not the spot he came to Chicago to play but one he handled well enough when they altered their run blocking schemes. The line is different, though, with healthy James Daniels moved from left guard to right guard and rookie Teven Jenkins at left tackle.
Will they even try to use the same style blocking and running plays they used when they won three straight last year? Should they even do it? After all, they ran well against three of the NFL's worst run defenses.
The answer can lie with the quarterbacks.
Andy Dalton isn't going to effectively run a bootleg style attack. He'd be more of the pocket passer type like Nick Foles was last year. Justin Fields won't start the opener but when he gets in—or if he does—he's capable of that style of attack.
Then again, Patrick Mahomes counts quick feet among his assets as Fields does but he's not running the bootleg style of attack in Kansas City. Fields can play the Kansas City style attack, as well.
The play caller himself could decide this identity. Nagy brought the Chiefs offense to the Bears and is going to call plays again. Is he calling plays out of formations he's comfortable with, or going to something which worked for three games with Mitchell Trubisky playing quarterback?
The offensive identity could blend into some sort of mish-mash of the two or the Bears wind up eventually going back to the Andy Reid style.
The Defense
Everyone knew what to expect in the past from the Bears defense. Their identity was known, even as they often disguised their intent.
It isn't the same scheme, although very similar to what they ran in the past.
With Sean Desai running a defense for the first time, there will be plenty of differences from Chuck Pagano's two years.
"I said it to you (media) guys in the first time I met with you all after I got the job: I want this defense to be palpable," Desai said.
Before they can accomplish this, they need to know who they actually are.
The tendency is to point at the Vic Fangio years and see the Bears reverting back to this identity, but it's not going to be the same because the personnel has been drastically altered.
This is a team with great questions in the secondary because two cornerback spots are no longer in the hands of proven veterans who knew the scheme well.
Their smothering run defense is now in question because no one knows how a year away will affect nose tackle Eddie Goldman, or if he'll even be in camp as the Bears promise. Can Akiem Hicks be the same player at age 31 and soon-to-be 32, especially after the team showed a reported willingness to part ways with him in a trade? Danny Trevathan is a key to stopping the run but another year older and coming off possibly his worst NFL season.
The edge rushers should be the team's greatest strength but Robert Quinn's failures last year leave questions whether he can even handle the edge in a 3-4, and if they can't provide help from the other side then the pressure will begin building on Mack from Day 1.
Even the coaching staff besides Desai is a question, with only secondary coach Deshea Townsend in the spot he had last year, and with former Green Bay defensive coordinator Mike Pettine acting as an aid to a new coordinator.
Bears defense has been a known quantity in the past but this season they're as close to operating without an identity as any time since switching away from the 4-3 defense in 2014.
Special Teams
At least the kicking, punting and long snapping are known factors.
"This will be our first time of back-to-back all the specialists coming back," special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said.
There's more to special teams than the kicker, punter and long snapper. In fact, Bears special teams have become synonymous with dangerous return men Cordarrelle Patterson and Tarik Cohen, as well as the coverage of gunners Sherrick McManis and Patterson.
Patterson is gone and Cohen might not be available as he comes back from an ACL tear. They also lost both gunners because McManis is gone after playing in Chicago since 2012.
Losing the speed/power combination on kick returns and the potential for a TD return they had with Patterson will be huge. Will they become more of a 25-yard-line team, gladly taking the touchback?
With Cohen potentially slowed or not even returning punts, will the fair catch become more popular on punt returns? Then again, he suffered the injury making a routine fair catch.
Tabor has plenty to address and solve if he's going to learn the full identity of his units.
The Bears Are What?
Plenty of preseason forecasts see the Bears rising with the Vikings to take the division if Green Bay is without Aaron Rodgers.
This can be so much wishful thinking. Too many unknown factors are involved.
With a postgame rant, the late Denny Green made famous the phrase, "the Bears are what we thought they were."
When Nagy's Bears enter camp later this month no one can say this because the Bears don't even know who or what they are.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
