Getting the Bears Better

The impact of experience cannot be gauged at a time when NFL players practice without pads and do not hit.

However, the naked eye has it's own gauge. Bears coach Matt Eberflus has watched his team's offense closely for two weeks of OTAs and sees better play based on the experience within their system.

"You can just see good execution, that they're on the same page," Eberflus said. "You can just feel that rep after rep. It's the consistency of it. It's not just one time; it's pretty much every time.

"In seven-on-seven, the ball shouldn’t hit the ground. And we're not there yet. Once we get that, where the guys are really proficient and reading the coverages, delivering the ball on time, we should not put the ball on the ground in seven-on-seven."

Practice will improve this, but for now the Bears are confident the experience factor favors them this time around.

"This is their second time going through it," Eberflus said. "Experiences. There's nothing like experience, so us just going through it a second time together, I think it's very helpful."

It doesn't mean they all can't stand to improve individually. In every player's case on offense the Bears need this type of step up if they're to become competitive in the NFC North.

Here are the areas where improvement is most necessary from each Bears offensive starters as they work through OTAs and then minicamp.

LT Braxton Jones: Bull Rush

Jones several times last year made the extraordinary admission he struggles with bull rushes, not that he needed to say this. It was obvious. However, he's not alone. It's a common problem for NFL rookie tackles. He took measures to help this offseason with strength training and has studied where he needs to have his body in order to handle edge rushers coming straight into him and trying to drive him back, but in OTAs and any non-contact work there will be little help for him. Real signs of improvement must come during training camp with actual physical work.

LG Teven Jenkins: Consistency

Sadly, in Jenkins' case he'll only overcome his biggest issue with repetitions and pratice, day by day. His issue is consistency and he said so himself when the season ended.

"I'm a guy who flashes a lot," Jenkins said at season's end. "I had some great plays. One thing I need to improve on is my consistency on the field.

"Like, I'll have great plays, driving somebody like 10 yards or so and the next play I might only do it for a yard or not be as great as the play before."

The problem for Jenkins is it's difficult to achieve consistency when health prevents you from practicing. He has made only 13 NFL starts in two seasons. He'd like to think his problems here are behind him, and in a sense they are. It's his back and neck, as these injuries have plagued him. But if he stays healthy he'll also have the challenge of playing a new position. Again. And that can't lend itself to consistency, either.

C Cody Whitehair: Shotgun Snaps

Whitehair has done enough moving positions in his career to think he'll be able to successfully move back from left guard to center, where he had his best season as a rookie according to Pro Football Focus blocking grades. Still, he needs to improve and perfect his snapping in shotgun.

"I know at first there were some issues as far as the consistency of the snaps," Whitehair said. "But I feel like I'm past that. I feel like I'm in a good spot. The experience there before has helped me."

Snapping in practices can't hurt. No nosetackle is going to line up and give him a wicked borderline legal shot in practices. It's probably going to take Whitehair some preseason games to get even more comfortable again at snapping in actual game conditions.

Justin Fields had problems holding onto the ball both of his first two years and if they can't get the center snap down perfect, then it's only going to exacerbate this problem at a stressful time, like on third-and-long late in games.

RG Nate Davis: Pass Blocking

We haven't seen Davis at OTAs yet, which is a concern. This has nothing to do with what he needs to improve, except that he's not out there trying to work on it. According to PFF grades, Davis needs to become a better pass blocker. They signed him in free agency because of his great run blocking ability in the wide zone but he hasn't been the same type of performer when protecting passers. Last year he did improve at this, allowing a career-best 14 pressures while giving up three sacks. He had given up 99 pressures the previous three seasons. If this is trend rather than abberation, then it appears Davis has made a step to be better. However, they'd still need proof of this because his overall pass-blocking grades those three previous years were sub-standard. You can't really do much pass blocking at OTAs anyway, so his missing the two weeks of work doesn't impact this much. Still, it helps to know the offense better.

RT Darnell Wright: Handling NFL Speed

He's a rookie. He's going to have flaws in is flaws. If the Bears get the same production from this year's first-round pick that they got from fifth-rounder Jones last year as a rookie, they'd have to be thrilled. One of the flaws scouts from NFL Draft Bible noted in Wright was a delay in recognizing stunts on the defensive line. This isn't just a rookie thing. All linemen can have trouble with this but the fact he allowed no sacks and just six hurries in his final college season tend to show he'll figure this out as well. The overall problem most linemen and all players have, for that matter, is adjusting to the speed the next-level players go at and for a tackle this is going to be a battle early.

TE Cole Kmet: Route Running

By the end of his second year, Kmet had addressed his biggest weakness and that was blocking. He has turned into a solid blocker at the position but can get better. The real issue he needs to work at is in route running with speed and direction change out of breaks. Especially in a tight end, this can make a huge difference in working with his quarterback. Last year he improved at this, as well, and his seven TD catches showed it. Kmet isn't incredibly fast or sure-handed, but is good enough at both so that if he improves at route running he'll become more of a top level tight end all over the field.

WR Chase Claypool: Concentration

Improvement for Claypool will come with offensive system knowledge. He had none last year. Coming in at midseason, he didn't fit in right away. Now he should begin producing bigger catches. This is simply a natural progression. What Claypool needs to work at is concentration during the catch process. He has graded out among the better contested catch receivers in his three seasons but he has 15 dropped passes in three years according to Sportradar's advanced statistics. He had 12 with the Steelers in 2 1/2 seasons, then three in the brief look he got from the Bears. When he's open, he needs to simply make sure of the catch before doing something with the ball. It's easy to see, not so eay to achieve.

WR Darnell Mooney: Hands

Mooney's problem to overcome had been how his lack of size limited his game but he did a solid job of turning into a blocker and also being slippery as a runner with the ball after his catch. Then he started having the problem Claypool has had. He bought a JUGS machine to work on his hands on his own. He needs some more work with this. He went from one drop in 2020 to nine in 2021. Last year he showed signs of leaving that concentration issue behind as he had just two but didn't get to complete the mission with a season-ending injury in his 12th game.

WR DJ Moore: Earning Confidence

Moore's problem to overcome is going to be one of confidence—not his but his quarterback's and his offensive coordinator's. He doesn't have real major flaws in his game, but he has to earn confidence. The biggest issue facing Moore this year will be getting targets on the scale he's used to in Carolina. The Bears offense was so run-heavy last year and Fields took off with the ball besides the planned runs. In addition, Getsy turned to the run more. Now Moore is in an offense where Fields knows Mooney and Claypool better after working with them last year. Moore's biggest goal needs to be going out and making a statement early, whether early in camp, early in preseason and then early in regular season. If he's able to immediately gain the confidence of Fields and Getsy as the big-play receiver, he'll get more targets and the Bears can get bigger plays. If he gradually adjusts to the new setting then it's a case where it could be well into his first Bears season before we start seeing the type of production he had in Carolina.

RB Khalil Herbert: Passing Game

An easy call here. Herbert has to become a key component in the passing game as a blocker and receiver, but has never had to do it. He's had only 27 targets in two seasons while he's had 232 rushing attempts. That's a 11.6% ratio targets to rushes. When David Montgomery started, he was at a 21% ratio. So Herbert's involvement as a receiver needs to increase greatly to give him the chance to improve. In his 27 targets, he already has had two drops. So he needs to get ahold of Mooney's JUGS machine to work on his hands.

Herbert was 29th in pass blocking by PFF grades last year and declined in effectiveness from his rookie year, going from a 61.5 grade to 54.4. Because he wasn't terrible at either, there's every reason to think he can do this but Herbert needs to be better at both aspects of the passing game.

QB Justin Fields: Winning

It would be easy to simply say Fields needs to get the ball out faster and work at it constantly. This has been pointed out ad nauseam and it's true.

However, taking more of a 30,000-foot view, Fields needs to win. Quarterbacks who lose constantly become losers. Fields is 5-20 as a starter. He can work at all his fundamentals and should, but in the NFL games are decided in the final few minutes every week and rarely in the second quarter or early third quarter. Fields has had some of the league's poorest statistics in the fourth quarters of games. In two years, Fields has one fourth-quarter comeback and two game-winning drives.

You can make all the excuses in the world about Fields' surrounding cast but even Davis Mills has done better playing for an even worse team for two seasons—two fourth-quarter comebacks and three game-winning drives. Last year the Bears had chances to win or tie on would be their last possession against Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, Washington and Minnesota and failed each time. Sure, you can point at Mooney bobbling at the goal line against Washington, Ihmir Smith-Marsette getting the ball stolen from against the Vikings and Equanimeous St. Brown letting an easy fourth-down conversion go through his hands against Miami. Fields had chances before those plays in each of those games to get them in better position and didn't. He simply wound up failing on drives in the other two game.

They're working their two-minute drill constantly in OTAs and it's a good thing.

Fields needs to take control of the game in the fourth quarter, end of discussion.

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