Bear Digest

Ways the Chicago Bears look ill equipped to handle Micah Parsons

The Bears have issues at one tackle spot but that's not the only reason they could be prone to the pass rush of new Packers edge Micah Parsons.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams gets into the open field and turns on the jets. Can he run fast enough to outrun Micah Parsons, though?
Caleb Williams gets into the open field and turns on the jets. Can he run fast enough to outrun Micah Parsons, though? | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears have run up against Micah Parsons only once in the past. Obviously, they'll need a game plan for facing him twice a year.

The one time the Bears did face him didn't go poorly for them, although the game itself did. They actually had more trouble with DeMarcus Lawrence than Parsons.

That is, it didn't go poorly against Parsons in their 2022 49-29 loss at Dallas except for one play. With Parsons, though, that's all it takes.

The Bears actually had a decent plan for blocking Parsons in his second season. If he did get by Braxton Jones or right tackle Riley Reiff, they had second-year quarterback Justin Fields in his best year as a runner trying to scramble away.

Parsons had three pressures by Pro Football Focus' count, but no sacks. Game stats didn't credit him with a tackle for loss.

The plan was letting Jones block him but supplying plenty of chipping help or outright double teams. It was a game plan devised by offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. If Parsons came off the other side or middle, they took their chances.

BEARS TACKLE SITUATION FULL OF FUTURE OPTIONS BUT MUCH LESS FOR NOW

Their pass blocking wasn't all that bad by PFF standards as Jones had the second-best blocking day of offensive linemen behind only former Bears center Sam Mustipher. PFF found fault with linemen for only sack allowed, and that was by guard Teven Jenkins.

Jones did draw a holding penalty blocking Parsons but it was on a running play and not a very good call, at that.

Sometimes Parsons came off the other side and Reiff allowed two pressures in the game.

In all, they didn't do a bad job compared to what some other teams have done against Parsons, with the exception of that one play. Parsons picked up a fumble and took it back 36 yards for a touchdown. It was a play when Fields could have simply touched him down but leaped over him for some reason. Parsons got up and took it all the way back.

Just one game in four seasons isn't much to go by, and most of the players they used in that game to block Parsons are gone except for Jones, but the Bears will have chances to learn how to become better at containing the new Packers edge rusher by facing him twice a year.

Considering the current state of the Bears offensive line, they look to be in decent shape to combat this problem except for one position. Of course, it's the position Parsons would be at if he comes off Caleb Williams' blind side and that's facing Jones.

There are a few other reasons the Bears are not exactly in a commanding position to handle Parsons besides his speed and pass rushing ability matched up against their weakness on the line.

QB meandering

A way to avoid Parsons is the quarterback scrambling. Fields could run like the wind when necessary. Williams is more of a meandering runner and susceptible to being tracked down by someone fast, like Parsons. Williams took some real shots last year trying to run, one in particular from Lions linebacker Jack Campbell.

Williams showed in the last preseason game why he's especially prone to someone like Parsons. He held the ball over five seconds on one play before taking a sack, a real problem of his. The decisions to run or get rid of the ball have to come faster because Parsons will be coming faster.

A passer who frequently runs into his own sacks is going to get caught by Parsons on second efforts even if initial pass blocking succeeds.

Backfield support

The first is their blocking support. A running back adept at pass blocking is necessary to chip block or simply be part of a double team. The starting Bears running back is D'Andre Swift and last year the worst pass blocker on the Bears' roster who wasn't on the offensive line was Swift. PFF gave Swift a 28.3 pass blocking grade on the year. In the rest of his career, he has had terrible pass blocking grades with one exception.

At least the exception was when he played in Ben Johnson's offense in Detroit and graded at a rock solid 73.9, 25 points higher than any other year in his career. He also threw the fewest pass blocks of his career then. Detroit used him to catch passes in passing situations, for the most part.

Roschon Johnson was a steady pass blocker his rookie year but last year barely better than Swift. Besides that, the Bears have have been talking like Kyle Monangai might be the No. 2 back and no one can be certain how the rookie can handle NFL pass blocking. His first effort at it against Miami was awful.

Attack the Achilles

Jerry Jones conveniently described how NFL teams need to attack Parsons. Of course, he wouldn't have done this before making the trade but giving him over to someone else in the same conference is an excellent time to let the cat out of the bag.

“The facts are specifically, we need to stop the run,” Jones told reporters when the Cowboys announced the trade. “And we haven’t been able to stop the run in key times for several years.

"And when you have the kind of extraordinary pass rush that (Parsons) had, then the way to mitigate that pass rush is to run at you. If the pass rush doesn’t get you ahead pretty big time, and you’re playing even or behind, then you’ve really got a problem in stopping the run.”

This can sound like so many sour grapes except that it is true in some ways. Parsons is only 245 pounds and isn't going to set a hard edge against the run. Being in a division with the Eagles and their ability to control the ball made this situation worse.

The Bears look like they're no better set up to attack Parsons with their running game than they do at blocking him with backfield support.

The running game looks to be an even bigger question mark than their pass blocking. They acquired three new interior offensive linemen and have Darnell Wright, so four of their five pass blockers seem dependable or higher. It's only left tackle where there are questions, and Jones hasn't been terrible at it, just has occasional meltdowns. Those can land a QB on IR if the lineman is trying to block Parsons.

The other ingredient they seem to lack is that dependable power-running threat. That kind of runner, combined with a 310-pound offensive tackle, can take advantage of a 245-pound defensive end in short yardage or running situations.

The Bears like Monangai. We've been hearing it all camp and preseason, but he played only on preseason game due to injuries and was promising but hardly dominant as a runner. There's little to go on here. As for Roschon Johnson, he's rarely healthy enough to count on him for more than a short-yardage run here or there.

Running on Parsons doesn't really look like a chance to capitalize on a weakness as much as it just seems to play away from his strength.

If the Bears are going to handle him, Jones is going to need to have fewer meltdowns or he's going to need to be replaced by someone who doesn't have them

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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.