The Positive Side of Bears Offseason

It's easy to join the dogpile but a closer look can show how the Bears really could avoid being one of the worst NFL teams.

The doom and gloom expressed on all sides throughout offseason during this Bears rebuild can drag down even the most optimistic supporters.

The negative opinions totally drown out positives.

It's easy to dogpile on a negative narrative, and this is what most analysts do. It's the lazy man's approach.

Often, there is a positive side to every negative, the other side of the coin so to speak. It's harder to figure this part out but it exists.

Here's the other side of that coin for Bears fans who are looking to cling to something as their team is two weeks away from training camp and being labeled one of the two or three worst teams in the league.

The optimistic other side of the coin isn't one you'll see much, but it's out there waiting to be discovered by ignoring the lazy narrative.

1. The Bears Didn't Get Justin Fields Help

Start with the really big, overdone complaint.

They're supposed to improve the team with new personnel in the offseason. It's not the Chicago Fields, it's the Bears.

Helping their defense in the draft helped the team, and the beneficiary ultimately can be Fields by getting more chances after the turnovers forced by a defense that might be able to produce more interceptions than the franchise record-low of eight they had last year. As for free agency, they did what they could considering the salary cap mess bequeathed unto Ryan Poles by Ryan Pace, who was the GM equivalent of Toonces the Cat (On SNL, he drove the family car over the cliff every week).

The national narrative on the Bears always assumes they have a good defense and they needed offensive help to support Fields, and doggone it, those dummies just didn't help Fields. 

But that 2018 defense is long gone. If they didn't improve the defensive personnel, didn't find players who fit into this new scheme, it wouldn't matter who they brought in to help Fields. They would lose anyway. It would just look more like 2014 than 2021.

This constant complaining over a perceived ineffective offseason, expressed earlier by Pro Football Focus  labeling this the 31st best roster and most recently in a CBS story saying they're likely to take a step back, has become the print equivalent of a broken record.

Fields has his three leading receivers back from last year—David Montgomery, Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet. Who can complain about having back your three leading receivers? Mooney and Kmet are young players just hitting their stride in the critical third year. Montgomery is a rock, a player who performs no matter the difficulties. He's also motivated right now because he needs a contract.

These are young players who could improve with experience. Wide receiver acquisition Byron Pringle showed last year he can be a supporting receiver for the No. 1 as he had more receptions with the Chiefs last year in only limited playing time than the No. 2 Bears receiver last year had—Allen Robinson.

The Bears did bring in Velus Jones Jr., although they seem to be assuming a rookie's production too much. Considering last year their No. 3 and 4 wide receivers were often-injured Marquise Goodwin and Damiere Byrd, their depth with many of the veterans they signed as low-cost options can't be worse.

At tight end, Ryan Griffin and James  O'Shaughnessy rate ahead of what Jimmy Graham and Jesse James were last year as the backups.

2. Their Offensive Line Is a Disaster

Offensive lines are tricky. It's the sum of all parts and not individual brilliance that counts. It's also a new scheme and these players appear better suited to this style of blocking in the wide zone than players they had last year were suited to whatever that thing was Matt Nagy wanted done.

You know who had a really bad offensive line going into 2021? The Cincinnati Bengals were 25th in preseason rankings according to Pro Football Focus. It's only six spots better than they have the Bears ranked at going into this season, and it was bad. They weren't much better when they actually got on the field. The Bengals allowed 55 sacks, only three less than the league-high total the Bears allowed. Joe Burrow took 51 of those sacks, then absorbed 19 more sacks in postseason. That's 70 sacks. And they were one win from a Lombardi Trophy.

So how important is it really to have one of the better offensive lines when your quarterback is far more mobile than Burrow, who isn't exactly a statue himself. Fields' mobility could offset some early line struggles. The key will be whether the line can block the run because it opens up everything else.

Individually, the Bears are better at center with Lucas Patrick there than with Sam Mustipher. Their left guard is the same. Their right tackle, Larry Borom, is the same, unless they decide to move him to left tackle. It's two positions in question right now and the only one where they can definitively say they are worse is right guard. At left tackle, they weren't bringing back 40-something Jason Peters to block a wide zone scheme. They could have an answer at left tackle with rookie Braxton Jones, or even Borom. This is a leap of faith, but remember how far the Bengals leaped with that line.

3. Matt Eberflus Lacks Talent for His Scheme

Eberflus returned the Lovie Smith style of defense to the Bears and in Indianapolis immediately turned around a struggling group when he did this. Critics say he had much better talent with the Colts, though.

He did?

Sure, they drafted Darius Leonard for weak side. Is Leonard as a rookie in 2018 a huge upgrade over veteran Roquan Smith now? Maybe he's better, but it's by a small degree.

Eberflus had Denico Autry as a three technique. Autry was more accomplished with 10 1/2 career sacks than Justin Jones is with 4 1/2 but again it's a small degree. Autry never made Pro Bowl and had a few solid seasons for the Colts before leaving for the Titans.

His free safety was Malik Hooker, who never was All-Pro or a two-time Pro Bowl player like Eddie Jackson.

The Colts had Kenny Moore at cornerback, but at that point he wasn't as accomplished a Jaylon Johnson. He had five starts as a rookie the previous year.

Two other cornerbacks were Pierre Desir and Nate Hairston. Desir has started two of his eight NFL seasons and had one interception before his first year under Eberflus. Hairston has started 18 times in a five-year career.

The 2018 Colts middle linebacker was Anthony Walker, who signed for $1.25 million more this year to remain in Cleveland than the Bears paid Nicholas Morrow at about the same time.

Those Colts had no edge rushers comparable to Robert Quinn and Trevis Gipson, who combined for 25 1/2 sacks last year. And the Bears have Al-Quadin Muhammad, who had no sacks for the Colts in 2018 but is coming off a six-sack year for them. Indianapolis' Jabaal Sheard, Margus Hunt, Tyquan Lewis and Kemoko Turay combined for 16 1/2 sacks in 2018.

Eberflus had that bunch in 2018 ranked 11th on defense, 10th in points allowed and 10th in takeaways after they had been 30th in points and yardage and 20th in takeaways the previous year under Chuck Pagano. The Bears defense Eberflus takes over was 22nd in scoring, sixth in yards allowed and 26th in takeaways last year. And they've brought in two rookies who might help turn around their takeaway issues in Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon.

4. Special Teams No Worse

It's not easy to replace Jakeem Grant's return ability but they have some of the most accomplished return men from college football over the past few years on the team. Velus Jones and Trestan Ebner alone should be able to do this but Dazz Newsome also was one of the better punt returners. They've still got Cairo Santos kicking and still have special teams ace DeAndre Houston-Carson, but now have another possible coverage unit standout in Dane Cruikshank.

5. Justin Fields and Luke Getsy

Scheme makes a huge difference. What will Fields look like in Year 2 when they aren't using Matt Nagy's hitch patterns, tight end shovel passes or jet sweeps at the half-yard line. How much better can he be when they actually try to establish the run and work play-action off of it?

There's more here to be positive about than the Bears are given credit for, and the key seems to be whether they can do something to prop up the offensive line at one or two positions.

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