Grading the Bears for Preseason Finale

Bears coach Matt Eberflus adeptly sidestepped issues like a running back dodges tacklers in the open field during Saturday's postgame press conference.

On the other hand, he also expertly placed hints about the future or potential future pertaining to players after the 24-21 loss to Buffalo.

For instance, Tyler Scott had a 55-yard kick return and also returned punts, although he did have a slight bobble on one of those while making a fair catch before entirely securing it.

"We've been impressed with him the whole time, honestly, " Eberflus said. "He is very smart, learned the offense really fast, can play multiple positions.

"Now, in the kicking game, you know, playing gunner, and he made that nice tackle, and then the kick return that he had, he had a couple of, I think, fair catches in punt return I believe. So he did a nice job with that, too."

Translated: Velus Jones Jr. needs to be healthy and improving or he could be a game-day inactive while a rookie performs his job.

Then there was the issue of a reported request by Trevis Gipson to be traded.

No one could blame Gipson. He seems to have been shuffled behind defensive end Dominique Robinson, who hasn't produced many plays since Week 1 of last season. He's also on a team depth chart behind Terrell Lewis now.

Meanwhile, he's making strip-sacks and more plays than most defensive linemen on the team, and definitely more than DeMarcus Walker, who has been injured almost since Day 1.

Asked about the Gipson trade request, Eberflus danced away with a comment that really was almost like turning his head and saying "I know nothing."

"I'm not going to comment on that because I don't know much about that," Eberflus said of the report about a trade request. "I know that just came out."

Then he showed real diplomacy.

"I can just say this: Trevis is an outstanding young man, and he works his tail off, and he's been great since we've been here," Eberflus said. "He had some good plays out there today too."

If Gipson can bring back something in a trade, there's no sense in talking about weaknesses.

As for the team's sudden issues at center, with Doug Kramer now injured, Lucas Patrick not yet healed and Cody Whitehair trying to play through an injury, Eberflus remained conveniently vague on whether they could seek out a new center.

"I think we're not going to rule anything out," Eberflus said. "We're going to be active and looking at the best situation for the Bears. And we're in a good spot there.

"So we are going to be very open-minded with that and take what's the best for us. We'll see what happens."

There are any number of possibilities here when you go down the rabbit hole of trades, and they don't all include centers. Guard could be one spot, considering Teven Jenkins' problems being healthy. Or perhaps it's the defensive line, where Kansas City's Chris Jones is the object of numerous trade rumors with various teams including the Bears.

Dropping hints and dodging trouble weren't the only positives Eberflus had in the final week of preseason as the grades reflect.

Here are the grades for all the Bears, including coaches, after their preseason finale.

Running: C-

Considering their lack of healthy starting offensive linemen, the failure to run it on their first three drives with Justin Fields still in the game was entirely understandable. Actually it was expected. The backup line did eventually manage push enough so D'Onta Foreman could gain 11 yards on two runs but Roschon Johnson was held to 2.4 yards a carry for a team-high nine attempts and 80 of the team's 107 rushing yards came from players other than running backs. This isn't necessarily bad when Justin Fields is the most effective ball carrier, but he wasn't in this game with 16 yards on three carries.

Passing: C-

Kansas City's cornerbacks shut off the deeper passing with man-to-man coverage very early in the game and the Bears averaged a paltry 5.3 yards per pass attempt. Receivers had trouble getting open with Tyson Bagent at QB and he averaged only 3 yards per attempt. It might have been different for Bagent if Stephen Carlson held onto a touchdown catch. When Justin Fields was in the game, a couple of deep balls thrown to DJ Moore and Darnell Mooney looked forced when there were checkdowns or scrambles available. Moore's brilliant play on a 40-yard catch and run and the way they set up two effective third-down conversions with screen passes kept this grade from being worse.

Run Defense: D

They turned it back a year to when they still had Nicholas Morrow, Joe Thomas, Armon Watts and Al-Quadin Muhammad starting and were next to last stopping the run. They allowed 173 rushing yards and 5.1 yards per rushing attempt to the Bills with only 9 of those yards coming from the quarterback on scrambles. Missed tackles and poor tackling angles played parts and the line got shoved back, starters and reserves alike. The role injured safeties Jaquan Brisker and Eddie Jackson normally have in run support often gets overlooked and in this one there wasn't a great deal of support from the backup safeties who played for them all the way down to the bottom of the depth chart.

Pass Defense: B

A strip-sack by Gipson, a neat interception by Tyrique Stevenson along the sidelines, three pass defenses by reserve cornerback Michael Ojemudia, and a 68.2 team passer rating against put this down as a win for the secondary and rush men. They did show problems early in the game with the first-team defense staying with receivers once Josh Allen started scrambling. Everyone has this issue against Buffalo, though.

Coaching: B+

Matt Eberflus wisely gave Bagent the most playing time after the other backups had this luxury in the past. He didn't need to do it. He also didn't even need to make Bagent a competitor for backup because it's really a huge leap for a D-II passer to make from undrafted to second team with any NFL team. However, they did instill some confidence in the rookie by doing it and if they need to go to a third passer then he'll at least have this experience to his credit. This side battle at QB also put some energy in the team at a time when it was needed due to mounting injuries. There were 16 Bears not in uniform Saturday who will be, or could be in the opener. Eberflus hasn't let players feel too comfortable during preseason as he tries to keep competitive juices stirred. His comments about Scott as a a receiver and punt returner are an example. Some credit also needs to go to new cornerbacks coach Jon Hoke for helping Stevenson keep his head in the game after giving up a TD pass.

Overall: C-

The best thing about the preseason is always when it ends. In this case, however, enough flaws and issues have popped up by the final game that the Bears have to be longing for the days when they had a fourth preseason game so that they'd have another week to get healthier and iron out some wrinkles.

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