- Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune discusses the return of Austin Booker and the state of the pass rush:
Despite missing the final exhibition game, Booker led the NFL with four sacks in the preseason, and the Bears were optimistic that the gains they saw him make over the offseason and in training camp would carry into the regular season. He had 1½ sacks and four QB hits in 17 games as a rookie but looked more refined and powerful in the preseason.
“You felt the pass rush there, particularly in the game setting,” coach Ben Johnson said before practice Tuesday. “I saw it in practice and the joint practices as well. He was a guy that was able to affect the quarterback. That’s something that we talked about as a unit today: points of emphasis, where can we improve. Obviously it’s the penalties, it’s the run game, but affecting the quarterback, we’re not doing a good enough job of it.
“That’s really where I saw Booker making the biggest impact in the preseason. We’ll have to see where he is now back on the practice field.”
Booker seems to me to be a leaky vessel to be pouring the Bears pass rush hopes into.
Ultimately, when you are holding your breath hoping that a fifth rounder comes through for you, this comes down to poor drafting. The Bears have spent resources trying to build the defensive line up. They just haven’t panned out (I’m looking at you, Gervon Dexter, Zach Pickens and possibly Shemar Turner).
It’s possible that it’s just been poor coaching across the board. But I think it’s more likely that those in the front office are eventually going to have to take a long lookin the mirror.
- Biggs also spent his bye week looking at the run defense.
Getting two core players back will help, for sure, but it’s not as if the Bears are going to have reinforcements who make a big difference on the line… The linemen need to start defeating blocks, cutting through double-teams and holding their ground.
“The most important thing that we’re looking at as a staff and as players is, how do we get better at some of our fundamentals?” Ben Johnson said. “We’re not shedding blocks to the degree we’d like to yet, or at least as consistently as we’d like to yet. We’re not making tackles in space as well as we’re capable of.
This week is where we find out a lot about what kind of stuff Johnson has assembled. They are being challenged to correct these issues against Washington and they’ve been given the time during the bye to take a long look to figure out what where the problems are and how to solve them. The defensive personnel that Matt Eberflus ran with last year isn’t that much different than the personnel that they are going with now. And that defense wasn’t too bad early in the year.
I’ll be fascinated to see what this team looks like Monday night.
- Biggs answers your questions:
Ozzy Trapilo looked good enough at right tackle to start. What about moving Darnell Wright to left tackle to replace Braxton Jones and using Theo Benedet as the swing tackle? — Chris R., Midlothian
A good number of folks wondered the same thing. Jones is headed to the bench for the Week 6 game at Washington and, I believe, Benedet will be the man to replace him…
Switching Wright to the left side is something the Bears mulled publicly before the start of the offseason program. Then, we never saw him there. Jones, Trapilo, Kiran Amegadjie and finally Benedet all took turns at left tackle over the summer. That clearly told us the team’s preference was to keep Wright at right tackle.
Wright has been a little up and down this season, which isn’t unlike his first two years in the league. He can be an absolute physical force in the run game. Coach Ben Johnson recently raved about Wright’s elite athleticism for an offensive lineman and talked about doing stuff to get him in space in the running game because he moves so well.
However, Wright can be prone to lapses in play, something that hopefully smooths out soon because if you’re still saying that about a player going into Year 4, chances are that’s always going to be an issue.
Despite missing Week 4, he’s tied with Kansas City Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor for the most penalties in the league with six. Wright has been called for two false starts, two holds (one was super iffy in Week 1), one illegal man downfield and a chop block.
Asking him to switch sides in the middle of the season and coming off an injury probably isn’t Plan A at Halas Hall. Instinct tells me Benedet, who played left tackle when Jones was removed from the game against the Raiders in the second quarter, will get the next shot at the job.
Could Wright be a consideration before the end of the season? Anything is possible, but if the Bears really liked this option, they probably would have been more proactive in the offseason when four other players got a shot on the left side.?
If Benedet falters, the Bears might try Trapilo again at left tackle before switching Wright.
Before training began I was in the camp that thought Trapilo would be starting at right tackle and that Wright would switch over to the left.
However, after watching the Wright struggle so much with the new offense to the point where he can’t concentrate enough to stay onside jumping. I think that he might struggle to make the switch.
I think it’s very possible that the coaching staff made the right call here. But it is very unfortunate because it has left them without a great option at left tackle. Perhaps they’re counting upon some improvement from Tripoli in the offseason that would make him more comfortable on the left. In the meantime, I think they’re just going to have to struggle to get by.
- Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic takes a statistical look at quarterback Caleb Williams.
When Williams is in rhythm, we see the precision, but there have been too many throws that aren’t giving his receivers a chance.
That comes with consistent footwork and comfort with the scheme.
“I would just say my footwork and then just being more comfortable with everything that Ben and the guys have thrown at me, just being able to grasp it all,
The Bears saids that they threw everything at Williams “to see what he cold handle” in training camp and what struck me is that those were almost the same words that Eberflus and his staff used to describe what they did with Williams last year.
But, unlike last year, Williams has improved and looked far more comfortable every game. And this is the difference between good coaching and poor coaching. Johnson and his staff overloaded Williams, then helped give him to tools to handle it. Last year, no one on the staff had the experience to know how to do that.
Fishbain also highlighted a pile of stats in the article. But the one I’m paying the most attention to is EPA versus the blitz. This has vastly improved since last year (-0.01 in 2024 and 0.22 in 2025, currently 10th in the league). This, again, I think is a good indication of both Williams potential and the coaching that he’s getting. Good quarterbacks in the NFL are good against the blitz.
I look forward to seeing Williams reach his full potential under this coaching staff as he, and the entire offense, gets more and more comfortable with the playbook. It won’t happen fast. But I’m happy to wait knowing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.