Bear Digest

The Bears position challenging Ben Johnson's offensive approach

When Ben Johnson came to Chicago he promised to build a different-looking attack than he had in Detroit based on different talent, and one position is forcing this more than others.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tyler Scott was virtually invisible last year with five targets and one catch but the Bears' slot receiver picture has changed.
Tyler Scott was virtually invisible last year with five targets and one catch but the Bears' slot receiver picture has changed. | Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

One of the key issues facing Ben Johnson as he forms his Bears offense is how he's going to handle the slot receiver position.

It is here where everyone could see the true test of Johnson's talents as an offensive side head coach and former coordinator.

The Bears are expected to lose Keenan Allen in free agency, unless he's suddenly willing to work for minimum wage after costing them $23 million last year. A team badly in need of offensive and defensive line help needs to worry about patching a receiver spot, but it was the slot receiver who was the key for the Lions offense. 

"We believe in multiplicity, that's both formationally and conceptually," Johnson said after his hiring. "We are going to make things very challenging on the defense each and every week. We want the ability to morph, whether it's 50 runs in a game or 50 passes in a game. It does not matter. Balance to me is throughout the entire season, not necessarily in the game.

"With that being said, those are broad strokes of what this is going to look like. It's not going to look like it did in Detroit. We have a completely different personnel group than what we did in Detroit. This entire offense is going to be predicated on the guys that we have available."

It sounds good. He's simply gong to base an offense on a different look.

It's a big task he has but needs to do it because Detroit's offense was based on its best receiver lining up in the slot. The outside spots became whoever else they could scrape together. The Bears were built differently at the position.

Sure, Jameson Williams last year became the deep threat they needed but for two years they waited on him and relied on Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond and Tim Patrick.

In the last three years, they lined up St. Brown more than 1,000 times in the slot and in 2023 401 times. Last year the Bears lined up Allen there 324 times there and he wasn't even the receiver who did it the most. Tight end Cole Kmet actually lined up as a slot receiver 351 times.

There's no way the Bears are going to go out and sign a slot receiver who can duplicate what St. Brown did for Johnson in that part of the formation because their money is tied up at receiver in both DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, who lined up mostly on the outside.

What the Bears could do is draft a slot receiver and try to develop him, or they could sign one of the former Lions receivers familiar with how Johnson's offense worked. There's no guarantee any of them will be available. All of them could be, including Raymond if he becomes a cap cut, but Patrick will be and Reynolds might also be cut by Jacksonville.

Here are the top receivers who played primarily the slot in college:

Tez Johnson, Oregon

A 5-9, 160-pounder from Oregon who had 310 catches for 3,889 yards and four good years with 28 touchdowns. He's the Tank Dell model of slot receiver and projected as a second-round pick.

Xavier Restrepo, Miami

A 5-9, 200-pounder who finished with two 1,000-yard seasons, had 200 catches for 2,844 yards and 21 TDs for his career and was extremely explosive with 16.3 yards a catch last year.

Jaylin Noel, Iowa State

Viewed as an early Day 3 pick, he's 5-10, 196 and made 245 college catches for 2,855  yards and 18 touchdowns.

Dominic Lovett, Georgia

A 5-10, 181-pound receiver who produced 197 catches for an 11.4-yard average with 13 touchdowns against top competition in the SEC. Projected as a fifth-round or sixth-round pick.

Jimmy Horn Jr., Colorado

Another undersized receiver at 5-10, 170, who started out with South Florida before going on to play for Deion Sanders and had 162 catches for 1,967 yards with 11 TDs.

There are others who are probably not draftable.

It seems more than likely Johnson would look at the fact both Rome Odunze and DJ Moore lined up more than 200 snaps in the slot last year, that Tyler Scott went virtually unused, and would build an offense with different players in the slot at different times rather than rely on one main slot receiver like the Lions had with St. Brown.

Scott appeared to have some skills as a rookie, with 17 catches but only a 53% catch rate per target and only 168 yards. Perhaps Johnson brings something more out of him.

More than likely, he'll let Moore and Odunze be slots at times. Considering he ran two tight ends more than 30% of the time last year, the identity of the slot man could become much less important than the need to get production out of whoever lines up there.

It will be a morphed attack and that's what Johnson predicted on Day 1.

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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.