Not Just a Passing Thought for Bears

The Bears focused offensively on the passing game throughout their offseason work and especially on the red zone and two-minute drills.

Their running game work being limited by lack of pads or contact was the best thing for them in the touch football season known as OTAs and minicamp.

It forced them to work at passing and they'll need even more work at it in training camp, especially their quarterback and even moreso wide receivers Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney.

They ran the ball better than anyone, passed it worse than anyone and pass-protected worse than anyone in 2022.

For as much improvement as they saw from quarterback Justin Fields over the course of last season and heading into this year, there is still much the passing game and Fields need to prove.

Here's where the Bears passing game needs to pick up the pace most when training camp begins.

4. Yards After the Catch

The Bears were worst in the NFL last year and one yard from worst in the league in 2021 and with the same starting quarterback. Delivering the ball with accuracy to a spot where the receiver can run with it can help stop this. So does having a receiver who can catch and has the speed and shifty ability to run with it.

Although the Bears were last in the league at it in 2022, they weren't necessarily as bad as in 2021. They were middle of the pack in yards after the catch per pass. They simply didn't throw it enough with a league-low 377 attempt so they couldn't pile up the yardage after the catch. This wasn't the case in 2021 when they were 23rd in attempts and worst in yards after the catch.

3. Red Zone Passing

Fields has the highest completion percentage of any NFL quarterback last year in the red zone at 68.2%, but he ranked only 15th in touchdown passes. Obviously getting it into the end zone from the red zone is the goal so the accuracy there needs to improve and it's why the extensive work at this in OTAs and minicamp was important.

"Those are tight throws inside there," Eberflus said. "The closer you get the tighter the throws are. So you gotta be able to put em low and away sometimes. Sometimes you gotta put em high and outside.

"It's really important. The accuracy down there is so important, and being on the same page as the receivers. Because Bobby (Tonyan) and Cole (Kmet) and Clay (Chase Claypool) and all the big receivers that we have, those guys are very valuable targets down there because they're always open, because they can use their body to stay open. That's what we need to work on."

2. Passing Accuracy

It's a blend of the receivers and Fields, which makes the absence of Mooney and Claypool during OTAs and minicamp all the more damaging. Claypool did get practices, but only three of them in Week 1 of OTAs.

Fields needs this improvement more than anything else. He completed only 60.4% last year and is at 59.2% for his career. He hasn't cracked the top 30 in completion percentage in either of his two seasons. More importantly, quarterbacks with lower percentages usually go nowhere. The lowest completion percentage of quarterbacks who were in the playoffs last year was Josh Allen's 63.3%. Reaching that number is a good target for Fields and the passing game, if not higher.

Two years ago Jalen Hurts was at 61.3% and had the worst percentage for quarterbacks in the postseason, but the Eagles lost their first game. A year later Hurts was 11th in the league at 66.5% and in the Super Bowl against the passer with the seventh-best completion percentage, Patrick Mahomes (67.1%).

The overall passing motion and consistency of it is where Fields can stand to improve, and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko thinks he sees this

"I think he's made a conscious effort to make himself smoother, make himself more fluid, letting his feet lead him and then everything else mirrors off of that," Janocko said. "To me, that's where we've seen some growth. It's what he's put a real focus on (in the offseason), just quantifying that as we get out there, completing more balls and putting ourselves in those situations in a game. Then it goes to training camp. Hopefully we see some carryover there."

1. Getting the Ball Out

Fields got a bit edgy when asked about working at getting the ball out after minicamp had ended.

"I mean, yeah, of course you just want to work on getting the ball out as fast as you can," Fields said. "The faster I can get the ball to guys like DJ, Moon, the running back, all that."

No doubt he's heard this over and over and can't enjoy hearing it, but it needs to be said. His 3.12 seconds to throw was slowest among starting quarterbacks last year.

Coaches, at least, say he's better at it with a year in the offense.

"I think we're on track. I really do," Eberflus said. "I really feel good where we are. We have spent a lot of time and attention on that as well, and we're going to continue doing that during training camp.

"To me that's great to have those 7-on-7s, where you can work on the rhythm, the timing of it, work on your pass coverage as well, and we're going to continue to do that."

It helps to have an offensive line protecting the passer, of course. The Bears didn't have this. They haven't done it well since 2018. That was the last time they were top half of the league in fewest sacks allowed.

It can't hurt having a receiver like DJ Moore to make sure someone does get open. That's part of the reason not having the other two main receivers available during offseason is so damaging.

However, much of this falls back on Fields and it's that time issue. It can lead to many of the sacks they took the last two years if he's holding the ball too long.

Fields last year was sacked 14.7% of the time he dropped back to pass. It was the highest percentage in the league. It was a historically bad effort to get passes off cleanly.

Even David Carr, who was treated like a crash dummy with the Houston Texans, never had a 14.7% sack percentage as starter. In fact, according to Sportradar it's the worst sack percentage for an NFL starting quarterback who played more than half his team's games since Greg Landry was sacked 15.9% of the time in 1976 with Detroit.

That was a different era of football when quarterbacks held the ball longer because most took deeper drops before throwing.

The 1980s 49ers changed all of this with five- and three-step drops on timing throws, although sometimes in Chicago it doesn't seem the message got through.

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