Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“I wasn’t expecting more than eight or nine wins, but I was blown away by how bad the Bears looked. Are there any reasons for optimism they can turn things around? I didn’t see any. — @tn5280

“It was a really bad second half for the Bears. No question about that, and there’s nowhere to go but up, right? Yes, it seems like we’ve been saying that for a while. The one thing I would point to is this is a really young roster. Nearly half of the players are in their first or second season, so I would expect natural growth. Will they all take that step forward and emerge as real contributors to successful football? Of course not. But some of these players will develop.

“The coaches will get a better feel for strengths and weaknesses, and you should see improvement. The sting of the loss was made worse because it came against the Packers without Aaron Rodgers. It’s a long season and there appear to be some bad teams on the schedule. You’d classify the Bears as a bad team now, too, but there will be opportunities for success.”

I’ll say that Biggs has a point. But I think on an organizational level, this just doesn’t fly with me.

The Bears have roughly the 10th oldest roster in the NFL. The youngest? The Green Bay Packers.

The Packers have a young team, too. The difference is that they were well prepared to rise to the occasion and to perform in a hostile environment knowing that their quarterback was entering his second NFL start and that they were without their best wide receiver.

The Bears? They laid an egg in a big spot. As has been their habit for a few years now. Think the opener in 2018. Think virtually every Packers game for that matter.

Its the coaches job to get players ready to play on game day. The Bears players didn’t look like they were. This is a bad, bad sign for a coaching staff that oversaw a lot of losing in 2022. Yes, the Bears had a poor roster. But they did little to rise up and overcome that deficiency and arguably they should have won more games.

These performances where the lights are on have become a bad habit for both the team and the organization. They’re indicative of incompetence on a higher level where coaches and the men who hire them aren’t making good decisions. Meanwhile one of the NFL’s best fan bases is told to wait for tomorrow. Over and over and over again.

Offense

• The Bears started the game nicely with some easy throws from Fields and some decent runs. They gradually worked Fields up to longer passes from there.
• The Bears had two shots to make 3rd and 4th and short on the first set of downs. They ran two sneaks from under center and failed. That told me everything I needed to know about the sate of the interior of the offensive line despite efforts to improve it.
• I thought Fields looked good today throwing the ball. He’s got a strong arm and his accuracy is under-rated. It was harder for me to judge his ability to play from the pocket on TV but from my point of view, he ran the ball too much again. What replays we got that showed anything seemed to indicate that he was still missing open receivers. He certainly didn’t appear to be throwing with any anticipation that I could detect.
• Some will claim that Fields spent too much time under pressure and they’d have a point. The blocking up front wasn’t always up to snuff. But Fields still drops back and holds the ball instead of hitting his back foot and throwing it. He could make things a lot easier on that offensive line.
• Fields made a lot of yards on the naked boot last year. The Packers were well coached and looked ready for it.
• It was nice to see Fields take a check down pass early in the game. Fields needs to get comfortable working his way down the field gradually rather than going for a home run every play. Of course, that means that you have to trust the players round you to make plays.
• I like the way that D’Onta Foreman runs. Straight ahead slasher with vision. He’s good. Roschon Johnson took advantage of his chances.
• The Bears were 1 of 11 on third down. I don’t think I need comment further.

Defense

• Green Bay came out and did what you might expect. They decided to run over the Bears defense. From there it transitioned to play action passes. And they did it all pretty well.
• Jordan Love certainly looks to me like he belongs. His passer rating was virtually perfect. There were some throws that weren’t where they needed to be but he could hardly have been better under the circumstances.
• As Greg Olson said during the broadcast, quarterbacks make their money on third down. The Packers had a number of plays where they converted third and long against the Bears defense. The Bears were a very good 9 of 14 on third down.
• Nice job by the Bears defense in the first half when Love tried to draw them off-sides on fourth and three inside the Bears half of the field. The temptation to jump off-sides in those situations must be overwhelming. They held their discipline and didn’t do it.
• Most fans know that the Bears pass rush was poor last year. It appeared to me that they picked up where they left off. The four man rush struggled to make it to Love and he frequently had too much time to throw.
• I thought that it was curious that the Packers passing game was largely designed to put Eddie Jackson in a bind. He was evidently Love’s primary read a great deal of the time and his throws were determined by the direction that Jackson took. That obviously made it easier on him in his first season as a starter.
• Tyreek Stevenson looked like he belonged today.
• There were too many broken coverages today. The defensive backfield was supposed to be the strength of the team. Those things can’t happen.

Miscellaneous

• Greg Olson did a good job today. He brought an extra level of insight that most color men don’t.
• The Bears had too many penalties in the first half but to their credit they cleaned it up after that. They need to sustain that.
• The Bears lost to a team today with a quarterback who was starting his first full season and without their best wide receiver. And it was the same old story.

  I laugh when I think of all of those Bears fans and media pundits who thought that that this was going to be a different era because Aaron Rogers left. You know what has been happening for the last 30 years? The Packers have consistently risen to the occasion year after year. And the Bears haven’t.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes cornerback Jaylon Johnson after intercepting quarterback Justin Fields in the red zone on Monday.

“I’ve been wanting to get to game week since the start of camp,” [Johnson] said. “So, everything you do is preparation. The more snaps, the more ready I can get for game one. It’s what drives me at this point. I mean, the old saying is the hay is never in the barn. Even for some of the best, you’ve always got to find new things. There’s always going to be something you can get better at. For me, I want to create more turnovers. Just trying to find different ways and creative ways to get more turnovers.”

Johnson is trying to get a new contract this year and I have no doubt that in preliminary discussions the Bears have focused on his ball production. He has 1 interception in 39 games played over 3 seasons in the NFL.

The fact that Johnson is in a contract year is great news for the Bears and their fans in that it provides additional motivation for Johnson to perform. That’s not to suggest that he would not have been motivated anyway. But money is always an additional motivating factor.

The shame of it is that, if the preseason is any indication, Johnson won’t be seeing much action on his side of the field. It looks to me very much like teams will be testing whoever starts on the other side, probably rookie Tyrique Stevenson.

I guess we’ll find out. But there’s no doubt that the better that Stevenson or whoever starts in that position does, the happier Johnson will be in the more opportunities he will get to show what he can do to make the money that he thinks he deserves.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions.

Will the Bears extend any other players by the start of the season? — @jtbcubs

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson is probably the player with the best chance of being extended before the season when you consider the situations with Chase Claypool coming off an unproductive 2022 season and Darnell Mooney returning from an injury. And I’m not saying there is a high probability of Johnson being extended.

It’s clear tight end Cole Kmet was the top priority for general manager Ryan Poles to sign, and that took six weeks or so to complete. Can a contract get done sooner? Yes. But can the Bears and Johnson’s new representation find common ground?

Johnson has missed some time each of the last three seasons with injuries, and the front office can’t be blamed for wondering about his commitment after skipping a big chunk of the voluntary offseason program. Yes, it’s voluntary, but the Bears aren’t going to wipe that out of their thoughts when mulling a major financial commitment.

It’s also possible Poles wants to see how Johnson performs early in the season before firming up what he believes Johnson’s value is moving forward. I wouldn’t be surprised either way with Johnson before the season.

Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised. But I kind of doubt that it’s going to happen.

Something tells me that the Bears already know that they’re not going to be able to meet Johnson’s price. Johnson sounds like he’s willing to be reasonable and that he knows that he’s not at All Pro. But he doesn’t seem to me like the kind of player who is going to accept anything less than what he thinks his value is.

And he seems like the kind of player who would definitely over-value himself. It isn’t just the fact that he’s felt like he was free to miss offseason workouts. Some may remember that he was the guy who Tweeted out the letter that former head coach Matt Nagy sent fining him for being late to meetings. I can’t imagine how bad the problem must have been for Nagy to have had to bring himself to do that. And, of course, it says even more about Johnson that he distributed the Tweet in the first place.

Under Poles the Bears seem to be becoming the type of organization that puts a value on a player and sticks to it. That’s nice after years of over spending by former GM Ryan Pace. But if the Bears are at one number and he’s at the other, I don’t think that they are very likely to meet in the middle.

I think the Bears have shown what they think of the odds that they are going to be able to sign Johnson with their actions. Having drafted, Kyler Gordon in the second round in 2022 and Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith in the second and fifth rounds, respectively, in 2023, I have to see these players, as being both depth and insurance against the possibility that Johnson won’t be signed.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions.

How much will the starters play in preseason? — Jason W., Rolling Meadows

You’re asking about something most coaches, Matt Eberflus included, treat as a closely guarded secret. I do find it a little amazing that coaches — and this isn’t commentary on only Eberflus — can spend the offseason charting what they will do down to the minute through training camp and leading up to the regular season but don’t know what they’re going to do in preseason games. Yes, it’s a little early and things can shift, but the reality is coaches don’t want to reveal their plans until they inform the players, which happens much closer to game time.

“We’ve talked about that a little,” Eberflus said Tuesday. “Have not finalized it right now. But we actually visited about that this morning. It will be some time — it will be some play time. But what that is right now, I’m not sure.”

Whether that means playing time for starters in the preseason opener Aug. 12 against the Tennessee Titans, we don’t know. Many teams have taken a hard stance against playing front-line players in preseason action, and the Bears certainly don’t want to expose quarterback Justin Fields, wide receiver DJ Moore, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and other key players to injuries in meaningless games.

I’m also of the opinion that a handful of snaps probably doesn’t do a lot to prepare a player for the regular season. You aren’t going to convince me that 15 snaps for Braxton Jones at left tackle in the preseason are going to make him any more or less prepared for Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers.

A couple thoughts here.

First I kind of understand why coaches don’t want to talk about things like this. It isn’t that it’s some closely guarded national secret that’s going to make or break the season. But if you tell the media what your plans are and then something happens during the game and those plans don’t come to fruition, you’re going to be asked about it. Sometimes that’s OK. But there are times when coaches don’t want to explain, for instance, that a player didn’t get as many snaps as planned because they sustained an injury that no one wants to talk about Coaches would much rather keep reporters in the dark and tell you that whatever happened was the original plan.

I’m not defending it. But I do understand it.

Second, my guess is that the starters won’t see much playing time in the pre-season. I think the indications are that the Bears are one of those teams that prefers to keep their players healthy during the summer at the expense of training time.

I know that there are some coaches who prefer to go with the “practice like you play” philosophy. This would mean, to some extent, playing through injuries even during the summer so that players understand that that’s what’s expected and get used to it.

After all, as the players say, the only game that you ever play in the NFL when you’re completely healthy is your first one. If you aren’t practicing every time something hurts, you basically arne’t practicing.

I am reminded of the Chase Claypool incident where the Bears put him on the injured list to begin camp and then the very next day took him off. In my head, I imagined the Bears saying to themselves that they prefer to have him completely healthy for the season and rest whatever minor injury is bothering him. I would speculate that Claypool, coming from Pittsburgh, is more of the mind that you play through those things even when you practice. It’s a question of being tough and setting an example for the other players. My guess is that Claypool’s training with a tough, no nonsense organization told him that was the right thing to do. So he told the bears to take him off of the injured list.

That’s pure speculation. But I know tthat’s what some successful organizations expect and I can see it happening.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions.

From videos, it seems Justin Fields is willing to take checkdowns more often. Do you see this being a big thing for the offense when he is taking those 4- to 5-yard completions? — @dabearszach

It definitely will be a positive if the Bears can get the running backs more involved in the passing game. Those are some of the “layups,” as offensive coordinator Luke Getsy calls them. Take the short gain, live to play another down. Those dump-offs eliminate the chances for a huge play on some of those snaps but they also create a profit, if even a small one. They keep drives moving. The Bears totaled only 62 targets for running backs/fullbacks last season with David Montgomery leading with way with 40 (34 receptions, 316 yards).

From my perspective, there have been too many checkdowns to running backs or throws to tight ends on short-curl or hook routes in 7-on-7 periods in camp. You don’t want to see an abundance of passes directed to running backs. The goal is for the quarterback to see the Nos. 1 and 2 reads and get the ball out or if he has to work back to No. 3, do that but with speed and tempo. That is being decisive with the ball.

Checkdowns happen. Because the Bears can be Cover-2 heavy at times on defense, there are going to be plays in which that’s the outlet. If you have two-deep coverage over the top and they are capping the vertical throws and you see the linebacker drop, boom, you drop it off to the running back and go to the next play. That is what the defense wants. Being decisive is seeing it fast in the pocket and delivering the ball rhythm. It doesn’t matter who it is going to, but you don’t want a bunch of completions to running backs or short checkdowns to tight ends. It has been a consistent theme.

Biggs is, of course quite right. However, as I’ve said, before, Fields has a bad habit of simply holding the ball too long, and, especially in two minute situations at the end of games, it cost him and the team.

Biggs points out that the Bears defense can be covered 2 heavy, and that forces you to take with the defense gives you underneath. In two minute situations teams are always in this kind of coverage. The entire goal is to prevent the offense from making big plays. This is where Fields falls down. Be patient, take the shorter gains in these periods and be confident that you’ve got time to do it.

Rumor has it that when Fields was intercepted last week by an unknown, undrafted rookie it was in a two minute situation when the down and distance was first and 20. Everything was covered underneath and Fields threw the ball up for grabs in an effort to make a play that wasn’t there.

Even the always overly positive Adam Jahns at The Athletic had to admit after a glowing report about the Bears’ preformance in a another two minute drill that, “All of that success, though, came after Fields was intercepted by cornerback Josh Blackwell on his first pass in the situational drill.” Again. that is, on first down in a two minute situation where Fields could have thrown a low percentage but safe ball where only the reciever could have caught it and lived to fight another day.

Instead, he threw the ball up and it was intercepted. Game over and the Bears lose another one possession game at the end.

That kind of thing can’t keep happening this year. Taking the underneath throw has to be the answer. And if that means checking the ball down more often in camp, well, perhaps that’s something Fields needs to get more used to doing in situations that call for it.

Nick Shook at nfl.com has eight observations from training camps around the league. He says that Jordan Love is eager to get started as he replaces Aaron Rodgers at quarterback for the Packers.

“I’m the man now and it’s going to be fun,” Love said. “It’s going to be on display all year with the team, and it’s just bringing everybody along, have fun with the guys and make the most fun of this opportunity we got.”

The offense might look a little different without No. 12 behind center, but as Love explained Saturday, it’s still going to be Matt LaFleur’s system dictated by the coach’s decisions. Considering [head coach Matt] LaFleur‘s past success, that’s a good thing. But with Rodgers gone, expectations have admittedly changed.

Whether it’s a good thing or not is debatable.

The seven deadly sins were first formulated by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century. They include wrath, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, and sloth. But pride is considered to be the gravest and the root of the other six.

I’d say football coaches are particularly prone to it.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of what Rodgers was doing with the Packers over the last few years. Rodgers became too much of a see it, throw it quarterback and relied upon his athletic ability to make plays when he was not absolutely sure that a guy would be open. He didn’t do too much anticipation because that leads to turnovers if the receiver is in the wrong spot. And turnovers are bad for individual statistics. They can lead to bad plays on Sports Center even when the team wins.

In any case, as the article implies, he wasn’t really running LaFleur‘s offense as LaFleur would like to see it run.

But there’s no doubt that Rodgers is a great quarterback and he raised the level of the performance of that team. To his credit, LaFleur has been suppressing his feelings and he’s compromised to allow Rodgers to do it his way.

But in the end, LaFleur’s no different than most. Coaches tend to have big egos and I have no doubt LaFleur thinks that if he gets a quarterback that will run his system, the Packers will do better than they did with Rodgers. And undoubtedly he’s been raring for the opportunity to show it.

He might want to be prepared for a bit of a let down.

Time after time when we’ve seen teams in this position fall once a great quarterback leaves. Tom Brady leaving the Patriots is a prime example. Despite the fact that they have Bill Belichick, the Patriots have never been the same since Brady left.

And LaFleur is not the greatest football coach of all time.

It’s likely that the Packers will struggle in Love’s first year almost regardless. Even Rodgers’ first season as a starter after taking over from Brett Favre was less than stellar (the Packers went 6-10). But even that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t count on the Packers being as good without Rogers as they were with him.

The Packers have been on a wonderful streak for 25 years. But pride goeth before the fall. This could be the beginning.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune talks about Kyler Gordon‘s performance in camp. The Bears have Gordon working strictly in the nickel slot this year.

“I do believe that just with everything, less is more,” [defensive coordinator Alan] Williams said. “So when you reduce the amount of things that he has to do in terms of technique assignments, they can’t help but get better. He works at it unbelievably. He is smart. He is instinctive. I don’t know if you remember last year, but he didn’t get into that spot (nickel) until this time last year. We didn’t rep him there in OTAs. So he’s got all those reps banked from the season underneath his belt on top of a little bit less on his plate in terms of being outside, so I would say yes, it has helped him on top of one more year in the system.

“But if you’re just talking about Kyler from what his skill set is, gosh, man, the guy’s have nicknamed him Spider-Man because he is so quick. He’s so agile. He is instinctive. He’s got spidey senses. When he makes a play and you go, ‘Wow, how did he make that?’ Ding, ding, ding, the spidey senses are going off. The quickness, the instincts, they’ve been showing up in a big way. Usually that happens Year 2. I’ve seen guys come in and Year 1, they’re getting their feet up underneath them. Year 2, they feel more comfortable, they know how to get lined up. They’re not just going through memorization. Now they’re starting to play football. That’s what you’re seeing out there.”

I’ll never understand why they had Gordon playing two positions last year, particularly when became evident that they weren’t going to be competitive within the division. Gordon needed to settle in as a rookie and having him play both inside and outside simply put too much on his plate. Williams’ quote Confirms that.

I’m glad that they haven’t compounded the mistake and have played him at only one position this year. Hopefully it will lead to a better performance on the field.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune addresses the performance of Bears quarterback Justin Fields at training camp on Friday.

Without a lot of full-speed action, there wasn’t an abundance of plays to sift through and overanalyze. Fields threaded a nice pass to DJ Moore on an intermediate dig route in tight coverage against [Jaylon] Johnson in one-on-one drills. His best throw, also in one-on-ones, might have been a corner route to tight end Robert Tonyan against safety Elijah Hicks. The majority of throws in 7-on-7 action were checkdowns, so much so that it could have been by design.

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if those checkdowns were by design.

Fields had a bad habit of holding the ball in order to try to gain all of the needed yardage at once rather than taking what the defense gave him last year. That was particularly in two minute situations against defenses that were specifically designed to prevent the big play. It causes repeated failures in close games that the Bears might have otherwise won.

It would behoove him to do a little bit more of this and have confidence that the Bears can still move the ball in these situations. Even a cursory watch of other top quarterbacks in the league could show how much taking yardage in 5-10 yard chunks can quickly add up to put a team in scoring position.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions.

“Is Khalil Herbert at risk for a demotion? Roschon Johnson seems like great value in the fourth round, but that’s a crowded RB room now. — @mosconml

“My initial reaction when the Bears selected Johnson was that puts real pressure on Herbert. The Bears led the NFL in rushing last season with David Montgomery, Herbert and quarterback Justin Fields. Montgomery signed with the Detroit Lions in free agency, and the Bears added D’Onta Foreman and Travis Homer. Consider the current front office and coaching staff didn’t draft Herbert and you start to wonder how things will shake out.

“Generally teams keep three running backs on the 53-man roster, and that doesn’t include the fullback, where the Bears could have Khari Blasingame. I wouldn’t rule out a fourth running back making the roster. This is a good situation for the Bears in that it will raise the level of competition.”

My first thought when I read this question was that last year’s sixth round pick, Trestan Ebner was the player that’s in the most serious jeopardy.  He decidedly underperformed last year when given a chance to play, carrying 24 times for only 54 yards.  But perhaps Biggs already assumed that we would know that.

Most Bears fans considered Herbert to be a reasonably productive running back last year.  At 731 yards on 129 carries for 5.7 yards per carry he was an important compliment to Montgomery, who was more of a straight line, power type of runner with good contact balance.   Foreman seems to have a similar style.

There are four other running backs on the roster:  Foreman, Homer, Herbert, and Johnson.  Assuming the Bears keep three total running backs, a lot depends on how much the Bears like Homer.  He gained only 74 yards on 19 attempts last year and, like Johnson, would be mostly depended upon to add to special teams.  Given Johnson’s reputed strength in this area, you could argue that Homer’s job is in jeopardy, as well. But its worth bearing in mind that the Bears gave Homer a 2 year, $4 million contract with $1.75 million in dead money if he’s cut.

Bottom line, I see Ebner as being in more serious trouble that Herbert, who was a statistically productive running back on the field last year and whose skills could leave him in an important role in a potential running back rotation. Given the possible special teams contributions from Johnson and Homer and given Herbert’s production, I think that they most likely decide to keep four running backs after that unless Homer shows that he is decidedly better than Herbert.