- Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com expresses his disdain for the first episode of Hard Knocks:
“The Bears didn’t want to do Hard Knocks. And it showed.
“The first episode of the latest season of preseason Hard Knocks was basically worthless. And that probably made the Bears very happy.
“With Bears chairman George McCaskey consistently taking the position that he has no interest in having the Bears participate in Hard Knocks, seeing the reaction to New York’s turn on the newly-hatched offseason Hard Knocks surely made him insist on even greater care to be exercised in the selection of snippets for the first installment. And it likely will continue, through the final one.”
My first reaction immediately after the show ended was to agree with Florio. Neither head coach Matt Eberflus nor quarterback Caleb Williams are what I would call engaging personalities and they’re going to have to carry this thing.
But over next the couple of days, little things about the episode kept coming back to me.
For instance, there was a point as receiver Collin Johnson‘s big Hall of Fame game performance developed that Williams turned to receiver Keenan Allen and said that “there’s no way they’re keeping that guy off the roster”. Allen quickly responded, “Well, how many receivers are they going to keep?”. Williams gave me the impression that he didn’t appreciate the contradiction. In another scene, Allen was talking animatedly about something that had happened on the field and Williams mumbled a response and turned his back before Allen had finished speaking. Allen had a faint look of irritation on his face as it happened.
Neither incident is a big deal in an environment where people work closely together for extended periods of time. But they did give a little insight into the personality of each man.
By far the highlight for me was the conversation that Eberflus had with former Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Saban emphasized The fact that expectations for Williams were sky high and he reminded Eberflus and the viewers that Peyton Manning, possibly the best quarterback to ever play the game, threw something like 20 interceptions in his first season with the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts won one game that year. I wholeheartedly agree, 100% with almost every single thing that Saban said.
- Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune has a few things to say about the upcoming season:
“Making the playoffs is a reasonable expectation.
“Even with a rookie quarterback and a new offensive system, the Bears roster is sturdy enough now to compete for a playoff berth. The bar has been set accordingly — both inside Halas Hall and in the outside world.”
I have to mildly disagree here. I think making the playoffs is a reasonable goal not a reasonable expectation.
I can’t bring myself to expect that Williams will be a good quarterback for the first 8 or so games of the season. I don’t care how many weapons you surround him with he’s still a rookie and he’s still the guy with the ball in his hands the majority of the time. Those weapons mean he’ll win more than the 1 game Manning did. But they don’t mean that he will be able to avoid the errors that come with the territory.
- Speaking of Williams I was quite fascinated by what I saw in his first preseason game on Saturday. I am left wondering what the end point for his development is supposed to look like.
Should we be looking for him to eventually develop into a quarterback who can drop back, hit his back foot and get rid of the ball on time to a receiver? Or should we be looking for him to eventually be an improved version of the drop back, hold the ball and wait for someone to come open, “see it, throw it” quarterback that we saw on Saturday?
My hope is for the former. But I am wondering if it isn’t going to be the latter. I am reminded of a quote from Williams as he was talking to receiver **DJ Moore* in the first episode of Hard Knocks. Williams said to Moore, “Just find some open green and I’ll find you.” The quote had no context and so it’s a little tough to tell what exact situation Williams was referring to. But if that’s the plan for every play, we’re in for some interesting times.
- Brad Biggs, also at the Tribune, answers your questions. And mine.
“I was disappointed in the Bears last year in Week 1. To my eye they looked unprepared to play the Packers, who were the youngest team in the NFL last year and who looked very much prepared. I have to believe that this was, in part, a coaching issue. Is Matt Eberflus doing anything different to prevent something like that from happening again at the start of this year? — Tom S., Chicago
“Good question and one that was raised previously this offseason. The thing that struck me most about that 38-20 loss at Soldier Field was the number of breakdowns the Bears had in the secondary, the result of a series of miscommunications. That was one reason Jordan Love had four pass plays that went for 30 yards or more. Do you chalk that up to having a rookie (Tyrique Stevenson) starting at one cornerback spot and two second-year players (Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon) in the secondary? Maybe.
“The Bears didn’t have much of a pass rush and they’ve improved that with the addition of Montez Sweat. The defense looked more detailed after coordinator Alan Williams left. I don’t know how a new offense with a rookie quarterback will look in Week 1 this season. I do believe the defense will be much more buttoned down after an uneven start to last season.”
All reasonably good points. I’d say that the breakdowns in the secondary were a good example of what I was thinking of but the excuse that the players were young rings hollow when you look at the average age of the Packers as a team last year. And they came in humming on all cylinders. Perhaps the point that they eventually fired Alan Williams gets closer to the answer that I was looking for.
In any case, perhaps related to this question, there were these quotes from Moore and Cole Kmet that caught my attention earlier in the offseason. Via Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic:
“So when asked for a timeline for the offense coming together, [receiver DJ] Moore responded simply, ‘Tomorrow.’
“‘We gotta get this thing going quickly,’ Kmet said. ‘There’s not going to be time to kind of meander through this thing. We’ve got to get this thing going quickly here. We’ve got to operate at a high level. We’ve got to really take advantage of our walk-throughs when we get these things at night. The better we are through these things, the faster we will be on game day. But it’s got to happen quickly.'”
Something tells me that this has been Eberflus’s message to the team since camp began. He’s decided to try to instill a sense of urgency and he’s decided to do it earlier than last year. Perhaps that will be the answer.
One Final Thought
Dan Pizzuta at the 33rd team talks about the rise of the pistol in NFL offenses:
“The team that might have figured out passing from pistol the best was the Seattle Seahawks with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Of the teams that used pistol for at least 50 snaps last season, the Seahawks easily had the highest pass rate at 59 percent and the highest EPA per dropback.
“Seattle was able to create space down the field with a number of different concepts.”
As an old school NFL fan who likes to see his offenses run heavy with a healthy dose of play action pass, I find myself constantly lamenting the loss of offenses that start with the quarterback under center. A nice downhill start for the running back makes for a quicker hitting run play and for more convincing run fakes.
Waldron’s tendency to use multiple tight ends in the offense last year is well documents. This article gives me hope that we might see more of the pistol as a compromise between those under center plays and the full on shotgun formations that give the quarterback a good view of the defense without having to turn his back to it so completely for too long.