Piecing Together Bears Personnel Picture

Anyone wondering what direction the Bears are going in the offseason got a few clues in the last few days at Halas Hall.

Both were rather obvious and one stated before, anyway, but what coach Matt Eberflus said Friday seemed to communicate one Friday and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy confirmed the other one.

The weakside linebacker position is critical to the Bears defense. They need someone playing it who attacks and causes turnovers.

Eberflus in the past has said the three-technique defensive tackle, slot cornerback and weakside linebackers are the most important positions to his scheme.

This puts a spotlight on Nicholas Morrrow, who is a free agent after this year. Morrow became the weakside linebacker after the Bears traded Roquan Smith and Eberflus was asked to assess his play.

"He's done well," Eberflus said. "That's a big position for us, the Will position. It's a hotspot for us. The guys should make a lot of plays in there. He's been solid in there."

Tackles Leader But No Big Plays

Morrow just took over the Bears tackle lead from Smith, who hasn't been with the team since Week 8. Morrow has 84 tackles on the year and Smith 83, but Morrow's total includes the tackles he made as a middle linebacker for eight weeks prior to becoming weakside linebacker.

Morrow has 28 tackles since becoming weakside linebacker. He averages 5.6 tackles at weakside and Smith was averaging 10.4 at weakside.

Neither one has had the knack for knocking the ball loose and Eberflus had called this a desirable trait in his defense, particularly at linebacker spots. In fact, he was talking about how new middle linebacker Jack Sanborn needs to start causing more fumbles and the weakside spot is the one where attacking the ball is easier.

In his entire Bears career, Smith forced one fumble and it wasn't this year. Morrow has none for the Bears, either.

Morrow was calling defenses from the middle but kept that responsibility at weakside.

"He does a really good job with that," Eberflus said. "He's composed out there. He gets great feedback on the sideline. He's been doing well for us."

Those are all nice comments but none sounded like resounding votes of confidence going forward for a weakside linebacker, and the fact Eberflus mentioned this as a "hot spot" in the defense only strengthens the thought the Bears will be looking at weakside linebackers in free agency and/or the draft.

If they didn't think Smith was good enough to be paid like a top-five impact weakside linebacker, and sent him to the Ravens in a trade, then they must think of Morrow as more of a middle linebacker based on his lower production at weakside.

And make no mistake, that is what they thought of Smith.

He spent this past week trying to generate sympathy in Chicago by taking shots at Ryan Poles for not signing him to a big contract. However, with the Ravens, in a scheme supposedly more conducive to his skill set, Smith is averaging only 7.2 tackles with four for loss and no fumbles forced. He did make an interception of former teammate Mitchell Trubisky but had one in Chicago to give the Bears one of their three wins.

That's Smith's situation and the Ravens' and from time to time he'll no doubt pop off when he makes a play or two, but it's the past for the Bears.

They will go forward and most likely aim for help at the position.

Well-Guarded But No Secret

The other position where there was something more definitive said was at right guard with Teven Jenkins.

Earlier, Matt Eberflus had said they were happy with Jenkins' play a guard and saw no need to think about moving him back to tackle. He had started out at tackle in the offseason but quickly became a guard and it led to much friction immediately. Eventually he settled in, accepted his fate and excelled.

As the Bears shuffle Sunday between Alex Leatherwood and Riley Reiff at right tackle, Jenkins is always available right there at guard in case they want to put him back at tackle.

Thanks but no thanks is the answer from the offensive boss.

"I don't know how to answer that necessarily because I think he's a guy who could do it," offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "But I think what's most important is he continues to grow at what he's at.

"I think moving inside this year (to guard), given an opportunity to kind of find himself, and I think he has, he's done a really nice job owning that role. I think he has an opportunity to be a really good guy on the inside."

There is no doubt Jenkins has won over the analytics sect. Pro Football Focus grades him as the third-best guard in the league. He only played 565 of a possible 806 offensive plays because of injuries, so whether he could maintain that level for a full sesaon still will remain in question.

Still, it's been an impressive first year as a starter.

"I don't think there's any necessarily interest to try to move him somewhere else, but I think he's capable of doing that," Getsy said.

It's as definitive a statement as will come about the future for the Bears at this time of year.

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