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Bear Digest

Five Chicago Bears Who Improved the Most in Season's First Half

Analytics say some Bears players are better than in the past, while simple statistics suggest others are, but the eye test says it all.
Gene Chamberlain|
Austin Booker sacks Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield in Sunday's Bears win. Booker has a team-high five sacks.
Austin Booker sacks Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield in Sunday's Bears win. Booker has a team-high five sacks. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Improvement is easier to measure subjectively than objectively.

The Bears completed nine weeks of an 18-week season with several players standing out above their previous performances with the team. Although some of said improvements can't be entirely gauged with regular team statistics, most can be detected this way or merely by looking at analytics.

Coach Ben Johnson threw out a rew names of role players who have improved over the course of the season, like James Lynch and Daniel Hardy. However, they're participating in less critical roles than the starters as backups and special teams players.

There are five players in particular who stepped up their games when called on to start or play most of the downs.

Here are the most improved Bears for the season's first half.

5. DE Dayo Odeyingbo

Enough with all of the motivated Dayo jokes. Odeyingbo only got to play in five games prior to his quad injury, and now will likely return either at home in the next game with New Orleans or at Detroit on Thanksgiving. Odeyingbo's numbers did reflect better play than last year, when he played eight games and then suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. It's remarkable, in fact, that he showed up better statistically considering the injury he had.

Maybe it's the experience factor. He's already been through an Achilles injury in his past and knew what to expect. Although he played only 147 snaps on defense, he had three sacks. That was two more than he had all last season. He also had nine pressures, or three more than last year. His three tackles for loss were one more for five games than he had last year in eight. The Bears definitely haven't had their money's worth out of him considering his contract, but the little they got to see before his injury indicates they could get another nice boost on their defensive line when he returns.

4. DT Grady Jarrett

Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks but he can perform old ones pretty well when he's healthy enough.

Jarrett hasn't had the knee sprain to worry about that he had last year. A bit different defensive line approach emphasizing a quicker attack by all defensive linemen and less time tied up with blockers definitely played to his strength. Jarrett has the NFL's highest run-stop win rate for defensive tackles in the first nine weeks, according to ESPN's run-stop win rate metric. He's at 44%.


Expect his pass rushing to improve now, as well, with Jeffery Simmons lining up alongside. Jarrett will rarely get a double team now. The eight pressures he has for the first half is only three short of what he had for all of last year. He has missed only three tackles as a Bear.

3. T Theo Benedet

The more people start to pine for Ozzy Trapilo, the more Benedet produces. He did it last week while playing through a shoulder injury. Benedet's weakness last season in his first extensive playing time was pass blocking. This year he is fourth in the NFL in ESPN's pass block win rate among tackles, at 92%. Benedet began taking starter's reps in Week 4 against the Jets and has been rock solid. Pro Football Focus has Benedet graded 22nd among 71 tackles in the NFL, 19th blocking the run and 41st as a pass blocker. He's at one sack allowed and four penalties committed. They can afford to wait on Trapilo as long as Benedet is performing this way, that is, if Trapilo can even get his job back.
Fighting through the shoulder injury alone in the last game earned him high marks in the eyes of Ben Johnson.
"I think it's tremendous growth," Johnson said. "Certainly him as being a young player, just understanding that this team still needs him. We talk about how there are going to be games over the course of the season where you're not 100%, and yet we need you going out there and giving every little ounce you got in your 90% or you're 85%.

"I think that was a case of him (Sunday) night pushing through and being out there for his buddies. I think that's all over this roster right now."

2. DE Austin Booker

Already emerging as a force by the end of last season and the playoffs, Booker has only improved despite not being used as a starter. He still gets starter's reps but they kept him off the field for the first play of the defense's opening series seven out of nine games. Booker already is only eight tackles short of last year and has half a sack more than he made all of last season with a team-high five. He has reached a career high for tackles for loss with six, and needs six pressures in his final eight games to pass last year's total of 18.
"His intensity, his effort, they keep getting better week-in and week-out," Johnson said.

1, QB Caleb Williams

It would be easy to join the dog pile on him after the nightmare four interceptions against the Buccaneers but a first half of brilliance despite that game and three missed due to injuries says he'll have fairly impressive numbers by season's end.

PFF just got done shocking everyone with its examination of passers to date and determining: "Nobody has a higher adjusted completion pct (81.5%) than Caleb Williams."

This hardly seemed possible last year when everyone blasted him for wildness or for taking the tough pass over the easy win. He is 16.6% higher in completion percentage (68.7%) than he was for last season. PFF has Williams second among regular starters for overall accuracy, trailing only Joe Burrow. They have Lamar Jackson and J.J. McCarthy ahead of him but obviously Jackson isn't going to play again this year and McCarthy is playing only as a sub for Jaxson Dart. They also list him behind only C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow and Drake Maye among starters for ball placement.

He also has the highest EPA per attempt on non-first reads in the league.

Footwork improvement and accuracy throwing have combined with his knowledge of the offense in Year 2 to lead to this boost, one not apparent on Sunday night but definitely there when the Bears beat the two Super Bowl teams from last year, among others.
When the season was about to begin, Johnson noted the changed approach from Williams. This especially pertained to professionalism and his accuracy as a passer.

“He’s taking a lot of pride in his approach right now and it trickles down to everyone around him," Johnson said.

Williams' total reversal when it comes to accuracy is the type of thing that can carry a team a long way, maybe even into mid-February.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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