Biggest Strides Made by the Younger Bears
An age-related chart produced by an Indianapolis Colts writer put the Bears among the league's elderly teams at an average age of 25.53, ninth oldest.
Clip the gray hairs, start making retirement plans, take away the car keys, the Bears are old.
This is all so much garbage, of course.
The chart doesn't reveal how many of the players they used. If they used the average age of the whole roster, it's rather pointless. So many support players are usually in their very early 20s. And rosters at this point in the offseason are not even real rosters. They're expanded to include 37 players who won't even make a team.
One of Ryan Pace's tricks every year is bringing in some older reserve players who may not even make the team but will supply competition in camp. They've done it again this year. That pushes up the average.
The 53-man roster is what's relevant.
Regardless of all this, the actual age of all the relevant Bears offensive players is 26.7, if you put Andy Dalton in at quarterback. This is for the top 14 players. If you take Dalton out and put in Justin Fields — the look the Bears will ultimately have — then it drops to 25.7.
Take Jimmy Graham out because he obviously fits into no long-term plans and the average age of the top offensive players is 24.8.
Age is no factor here.
Age is a factor on defense, but not quite the way it may seem.
Akiem Hicks is 32, Robert Quinn, Danny Trevathan, Tashaun Gipson and Desmond Trufant 31 and Khalil Mack 30. However, no one is above Hicks' age and there are plenty of impact players in their mid and early 20s.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with a 34-year-old, 32-year-old and 31-year-old starting on defense and no one seemed concerned about this. Their quarterback is closer to medicare than he is to when he got drafted and no one worried much about this.
What matters is if there are younger players and they make an impact.
The four most improved players for the Bears last year were all on their first contracts.
When that's figured in with impact rookies from 2020 like Darnell Mooney, Jaylon Johnson and Cole Kmet, the Bears don't look quite so decrepit.
Here are those four most-improved players:
4. Bilal Nichols
In his third NFL season, Nichols regained full health and made it obvious he is their future on the defensive line.
When Hicks is gone, Nichols will be the big playmaker up front.
Nichols vaulted to career highs in tackles (95), tackles for loss (7), sacks (5) and quarterback hits (13).
As the season wore on, his confidence seemed to grow exponentially. Nichols hadn't been bad or mediocre before, but as a rookie fifth-round pick he didn't start getting playing time until midseason in 2018, then had injuries slow his growth in 2019. By midseason, all seemed in place for Nichols last year and he started to show the Bears will need to pay him plenty in 20222 to keep him for 2023.
3. Sam Mustipher
It's easy to be improved when you weren't even on the roster and only practiced the previous year. Mustipher finally got called up from the practice squad on Oct. 14 when the Bears hit their strech of offensive line injuries and COVID-19 problems. He finally started against New Orleans in a 26-23 loss at home, and then after his own knee injury his improvement became apparent when he got another start Nov. 29 against the Packers in a 41-25 loss. The running game took off and pass protection overall improved from the point Mustipher became their starting center against the Packers. He played every snap on offense in the final six games and had offensive line coach Juan Castillo singing his praises after the season.
The Bears were able to finish 17th in the league in runs up the middle last year according to NFLGSIS.com. They hadn't been this good at picking up yards on runs behind center since 2017 when they had running back Jordan Howard and most of their offensive production was traced to him. Most of last year's yardage on runs up the middle came after Mustipher became starting center.
2. Roquan Smith
Even Pro Football Focus had to admit Smith had improved in his third season, and until last year they were rather sour on him. Next up are the Pro Bowl voters.
Smith reached the end of the regular season playing at an extremely elevated level and then the Bears didn't have him for the playoffs with an elbow injury, leaving them with a replacement who hadn't even been on the field all year.
Smith hit career highs in tackles (139), tackles for loss (18), passes defended (7), caused and recovered his first fumbles and had a career-high two interceptions.
PFF said Smith was "...still trying to find consistency," heading into last season.
He found it.
Smith's only flaw came early last year against the run and that eventually faded away. With Eddie Goldman back at the nose this year to make it easier for inside linebackers, the number of tackles for loss by Smith could really begin to climb.
1. David Montgomery
It's easy to call third-year back Montgomery the most improved Bears player after the numbers he put up in 2020 but it may have been more a case of the rest of the team and coaching staff finally figuring out how to complement him better. His abilities were actually apparent in 2019, his rookie year.
The line finally started to block for him and they need to continue if he's going to take the next big step up among the elite backs.
Montgomery's ability to make backs miss and run after contact allowed him to vault from 889 yards as a rookie to 1,070 last year, and tied for fifth in the league. He got even better at gaining yards after contact after showing he could do this in 2019 by tying for sixth with 28 broken tackles. Last season he was third in the league with 29 broken tackles and trailed only Mike Davis and Antonio Gibson in average number of runs per broken tackle (8.5).
If the Bears line can only start to provide more yards to run before he finds his hole, they could really start to see something. It's part of the reason they drafted two big tackles with reputations for blocking the run.
As a rookie, he finished 26th in yards gained before contact at 2.0 and last year it was worse at 1.9, for 38th in the league. If he doesn't have to work as hard early on the carry and gets to full speed more often by the time he's at the line, those broken tackles and missed tackles can multiply greatly, along with the yardage.
If Montgomery becomes the force who has the attention of defenses above all else, then the passing game can finally open up in a way so the offense can finally shed a reputation for disappointment.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
