Bear Digest

What to Wonder About the Bears as They Make Noise in NFC North

Analysis: The Bears have never won three straight under Matt Eberflus and can Sunday but there are several things to wonder about the team as they have begun to turn heads.

Gene Chamberlain

D'Andre Swift has had two good rushing games in a row but how much better could he have been with more preseason work?
D'Andre Swift has had two good rushing games in a row but how much better could he have been with more preseason work? / David Banks-Imagn Images
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Beating the Rams, Panthers and Titans definitely beats losing to any of them.

It also won't impress anyone who is considering whether the Bears are legitimate contenders in the NFC North, a division where no one has a losing record.

In the future, the Bears will need to be better than 304 yards passing against a bad defense or 131 yards rushing against another bad defense.

They'll need to improve enough to stand up to a series of stronger opponents in the future, and some weaker ones who are making noises about being improved.

One of those teams they face is the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-4) in London Sunday morning, and it's a game that could prove pivotal for their chances.

The are several things to wonder about with the Bears and here are the top ones.

1. Can They Speed Up Caleb Williams' Learning?

Their rookie passer is showing tremendous progress, as his stats improving with each game indicates. Dead last in passer rating among starters three weeks ago Williams has moved up five spot at 81.3.

His completion percentage is up to 24th at 62.9. He is on pace for a 3,700-yard passing season, by far a team rookie record and would be their most in a decade. And they really haven't even gotten Keenan Allen rolling yet in the attack.

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However solid Williams' progress has been, it's safet to wonder if there is a way to speed it all up because he has until November before the schedule changes drastically with games against the strong NFC North opponents and the 49ers. The schedule shift is coming fast. The offense needs to be better.

Also, things change rapidly from year to year and heading into the season the Bears were reported to have the fourth-easiest schedule based on opponents' records from 2023.

It has changed so much that the Bears' schedule based on this year's records make it now the sixth toughest (.537 winning percentage). Only the Panthers, Packers, Giants, Falcons and Lions have tougher schedules based on this year's winning percentages.

The rise of the Commanders, improvement by the Cardinals and the divisional strength means there will be very few easy outs for the Bears in coming weeks.

Williams needs to pick up the learning process. The rest of the offense needs to be sharper.

2. Can They Even Consider a Teven Jenkins Extension?

The bye week is next week and their starting left guard, Teven Jenkins, said before the season he had been told there could be talks in the bye week for his contract extension.

How serious can the Bears really be with an offer when Jenkins came into the season with a history of injuries, now has an ankle injury and last week started after being questionable with bruised ribs?

His blocking is still extremely effective. They could simply overlook the injuries, but would that be wise?

3. Could Nate Davis Be an IR Candidate?

They have Ryan Bates eligible to return now from IR. Matt Pryor has won the hearts of coaches for his blocking, although probably not for his post-touchdown rough stuff Sunday. Bill Murray got the nod at left guard when Jenkins went out with an injury, and it seemed more logical to put in Davis at right guard and move Priyor at the time.

The severity of Jenkins' injury isn't known but he was seen after the game Sunday walking out of the locker room without a limp.

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So if Jenkins returns, they like Pryor, they've still got Murray, and Bates is coming off IR, it seems Davis is being squeezed out. Can they afford to keep the fifth guard on the active roster?

A $10 million a year player who hasn't been playing regularly isn't realistically going to attract trade talk. The Bears would lose $10.7 million in dead cap space by cutting him now. A trade would solve the cap hit problem the Bears would have but as stated, who is trading for a guard who has underperformed and had a nagging injury?

Considering Davis has had this issue with a groin injury off and on since training camp, maybe they decide to put him on injured reserve. It would allow them to add a player at another needed position, or they can do it when they bring Bates back. It's only a suggestion but they'll likely need to take someone off the 53-man roster when Bates returns and putting Davis on IR lets them at least retain him in case of an injury in the future.

4. Did the Bears Waste Valuable RB Prep Time

So much time was devoted by the Bears with practice reps in training camp and even in some preseason action to Velus Jone Jr. becoming a running back.

It was a source of discussion throughout HBO's Hard Knocks.

Then the season began and D'Andre Swift hadn't had much in-game work. He also wasn't running well. Four games into the season, Swift has finally started to get his footing within the offense.

You have to wonder if this could have been avoided if Waldron had been devoting those practice reps to Swift instead of wasting them on Jones, who has been inactive since Week 1 due to his inability to field kickoffs.

5. No Huddle Forever

Whenever the Bears have gone no-huddle it seems to succeed in generating offense. Each time we keep hearing how Williams likes no-huddle or "tempo" offense.

":He's very comfortable doing that because that's what he did a lot in college, and he'll tell you that too,” Eberflus said again on Monday.

He has and he continues to do so.

This being the case, why not get this in as a constant and regular part of the offense?

The Bills used to run a lot of no-huddle in the Jim Kelly era. Plenty of coaches in the NFL have done this, as well.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher 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.