By: Dylan Clemons

The Chicago Bears are coming into this season hoping that their offense will improve. The offense the last three seasons since Matt Nagy has taken over as Head Coach has ranked, 21st, 29th, and 26th in total yards. In points scored in those three seasons, they ranked 9th, 22nd, and 29th. To put it nicely those numbers aren’t good, considering Nagy was brought in as an offensive-minded coach from the Andy Reid coaching tree.

Coming into this season, The Bears have made a few changes to the offense. The big change is at quarterback, moving on from former first-round pick Mitchell Trubisky. They brought in veteran Andy Dalton via free agency and drafted Justin Fields in the first round. Chicago also added a ton of speed to that side of the ball as well bringing in running back Damian Williams, and wide receivers Dimare Byrd and Marquise Goodwin.

The Bears hope those changes can at least bring their offense to at least the middle of the pack in the league. Now, I’m going to jump into who I believe are the three most important players on the offensive side of the football for the Bears to have success this season.

Allen Robinson, Wide Receiver

Allen Robinson has been the most consistent offensive player on the team during his three years in Chicago. No matter who the quarterback is, Robison always seems to produce. In Robinson’s three seasons with the team, he has caught passes from Mitchell Trubisky, Nick Foles, and Chase Daniels.

Those quarterbacks are nothing to write home about. However, it hasn’t hurt his production. Robinson saw 151 targets last season while catching 102 balls for 1,250 yards and six touchdowns. He also so the 4th most red-zone targets in the NFL last season with 19, so maybe with better quarterback play, the touchdowns will go up.

With all this production you would think that signing Robinson to a long-term extension would be a top priority for the Bears. Unfortunately, the two parties haven’t been able to come to terms with an extension during the last two off-seasons. Robinson will be playing the season on the franchise tag, which is something he isn’t happy about.

If Allen Robinson where to go down with injury the Bears would lack a true number one option in the passing game. They have some depth at receiver position with Anthony Miller, Darnell Mooney, Damiere Byrd, and Marquise Goodwin. However, all of them guys don’t have skills, or the body types to be a true number one option in an offense. For the bear as offense to take a step forward this season, Robinson will have to be a huge part in the offense.

Teven Jenkins, Offenisve Tackle

The Bears drafted Teven Jenkins out of Oklahoma State with the 39th pick of the NFL Draft. It was a surprise to many, that he had fallen to the second round, considering he was projected by most to be a 1st round pick. However he played mostly at the right tackle position in college, but the Bears project him to be the left tackle of the future.

The Offensive line has been a struggle for the Bears over the past few seasons. According to PFF, the Bears finished as the 20th best offensive line in football last season. That was helped by a late-season shuffle of the line. Adding Sam Mustipher to the lineup as the center, and moving pro-bowler Cody Whitehair to left guard, where he was graded as the third-best Left guard in football.

Jenkins was drafted to take the spot of seven-year starter Charles Leno. Leno was kind of a disappointment his last few seasons for the Bears, which led him to get cut this off-season. But as a former 7th round draft selection, it’s safe to say Leno outplayed his expectations.

Teven Jenkins was a first-team all-conference in the Big 12 in his senior season. He is known to be somewhat of a mauler as an offensive lineman. He Projects to be a solid run-blocker with his ability to flatten the edge for running backs. However, his short arms may hurt him in pass-blocking, with Longer athletic pass rushers can stab and separate from him. 

Some scouts and the Bears believe Jenkins can come in and be a solid starter on the line. Hopefully, that is true, because the Bears don’t have much depth behind him at left tackle. With Justin Fields most likely starting at some point this season, it’s important for a rookie QB to feel comfortable in the pocket. Especially with Jenkins being on Fields’ blind side.

Andy Dalton, Justin Fields, Quarterbacks 

I felt like it would be criminal to leave the quarterback position off this list. But it is impossible for me to only talk about one of these guys. 

I have a feeling it’s going to be a similar situation to what the Dolphins did last season. The Dolphins were 3-3 with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback, who was playing pretty well. But the Dolphins couldn’t fight off the temptation of the first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa and they made the switch. I see the same thing happening to Andy Dalton with Justin Fields.

Andy Dalton spent last season with Dallas Cowboys. He ended up having to take over for the injured Dak Prescott in Week 6. Dallas was 4-5 with Dalton at the helm. Dalton was very serviceable, throwing 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 65% of his passes. I see Dalton being solid as the starter, but he’s obviously not the long-term plan.

Justin Fields is the long-term plan at quarterback in Chicago. He will be coming into the season as the QB2 in this offense. I don’t expect that to be the case for very long though. The Bears have been searching for a franchise quarterback for the entirety of their existence. Coach Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace are on the hot seat, so I don’t believe they can wait very long.

In 2019 Fields rushed for 484 yards with 10 rushing touchdowns at Ohio State. Fields also ran a 4.46 40 yard dash on his pro day. He also happened to throw 41 touchdowns as well compared to only three interceptions. I have a feeling that Fields will take over at quarterback in Week 4 against the bad Detroit Lions team. That game gives him a solid confidence boost as he takes the reigns of the offense for the rest of the season.

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By: Dylan Clemons

The Chicago Bears are coming into this season with more questions than answers. Head Coach Matt Nagy and General Manager Ryan Pace are very much on the hot seat after an 8-8 season. Largely, the disappointment stemmed from an embarrassing 21-9 playoff loss against the New Orleans Saints. The loss ended up being the last game quarterback Mitchell Trubisky would play for the Bears, with him now in Buffalo.

The Bears then signed veteran Andy Dalton to a one-year contract, whom they told will be the starter. Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. They then drafted quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th pick in the NFL draft after trading up to get him.

In my opinion, that should be the number one training camp battle for the Bears, but Nagy pretty much squashed that by saying Dalton will be under center Week 1. So with that said, let’s now jump into the top three training camp battles for the Chicago Bears.

Offensive Line

In my eyes, the Bears have three out of the five starters locked up heading into training camp on the offensive line. The first of which is one of the Tackles. They drafted Teven Jenkins out of Oklahoma State with the 39th pick of the NFL Draft. It was a surprise to many, that he had fallen to the second round, considering he was projected by most to be a 1st round pick. However he played mostly at the right tackle position in college, but the Bears project him to be the left tackle of the future.

Another guaranteed starter in my opinion is Pro Bowl guard/center, Cody Whitehair. He has started at both positions in his career but has mostly played center. The third starter is James Daniels, who was drafted by GM Ryan Pace in 2018. Daniels was only able to play in five games last season due to a torn pectoral. But heading into last season, Daniels had a 73.3 run-blocking grade according to PFF, which ranked 16th best in the league.

That leaves the last two offensive line spots up for grabs between four players. The Bears brought veteran Germain Ifedi back on a one-year deal. He started all 16 games for the Bears last season, mostly at guard, after being a tackle for four seasons in Seattle. He scored a 65.5 grade from PFF, which was by far the highest in his career.

The last three Linemen are wild cards in all of this. Undrafted free agent Sam Mustipher, from last year, started seven games and showed flashes of being a starting-caliber center. Alex Bars another undrafted free agent from two years also started in eight games last season. At times Bars looked overmatched at guard, and I project him to be a depth piece. The last guy in on this battle is Larry Borom, whom the Bears used round five draft capital on. Borom projects to be somewhat of a project, so I expect him to be on the bench at the start of the season.

For what its worth, I think the Bears starting offensive line should be, Teven Jenkins and Germain Ifedi at the Tackle positions. Cody Whitehair, and James Daniels at the guard positions, with Sam Mustipher as the starting center.

Cornerback

In one of the most bizarre off-season moves in the NFL, the Bears released veteran pro bowler Kyle Fuller to save cap space in which they severely needed. They also had veteran slot cornerback Buster Skrine leave in free agency as well. 

Cornerback is the thinnest position on the Bears roster heading into training camp. They signed veteran Desmond Trufant to a one-year contract this off-season. Trufant has had a solid career, being named to the Pro Bowl in 2015. But since that time, he has struggled to be able to stay healthy. Trufant has only played in 15 total games over the past two seasons for the Falcons and Lions.

This is putting a ton of pressure on second-year cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who also struggled to stay healthy only playing in 13 games due to a shoulder injury. But when Johnson was on the field, he was very solid. According to PFF Johnson ranked 6th in incompletion rate at 21%. Johnson will come into this season as the number one cornerback on the roster.

All of the other cornerbacks on the roster are very inexperienced. It looks like Kindle Vildor, and Duke Shelley will battle it out at the slot cornerback position. They each started a combined three games last season, and each had their moments. Vildor actually had seven tackles in the playoff game. My bet is on Vildor to win that battle. The Bears also drafted Thomas Graham Jr. in the 6th round of the draft, who may end up seeing early playing time. Former first-round pick Artie Burns is also on the roster, as he tries to battle back from a torn ACL he suffered in training camp last season.

Slot Wide Receiver

Heading into the last few seasons this was easy, it was Anthony Miller’s job to lose. Well, after another disappointing season, in which Miller could not stay out of coach Nagy’s doghouse. Miller has been involved in multiple trade reports this off-season

In 2018 the Bears traded up in the second round to draft Miller. Miller caught seven touchdowns in his rookie year, but since then has only four touchdowns combined the last two seasons. Last season Miller played 86% of his snaps from the slot, which ranked ninth in the NFL according to playerprofiler.com

With Miller’s time in Chicago possibly coming to a close, that opens the door for someone to take those slot snaps. The first player that comes to mind is free agent accusation Damiere Byrd who came over from the New England Patriots. The speedster that runs a 4.3 40 yard dash didn’t play a whole lot of snaps in the slot for the patriots, but that has a lot to do with long-standing slot receiver Julian Edelman. In my eyes, Byrd projects to me as a slot receiver with his small body type, only weighing 162 lbs.

Veteran Marquise Goodwin also signed with the Bears this off-season after opting out of the 2020 season due to covid-19 concerns. Goodwin has mostly played on the outside as well, only lining up in the slot for about 15% of his snaps in 2018 and 2019. The stats that sticks out the most to me is, Goodwin had a 1.88 target separation which ranked 5th in the NFL for that season. 

It is tough to project who is going to win the starting slot role considering we don’t know Anthony Miller’s future with the team. If Miller is on the roster for Week 1, I’d expect him to be lined up in the slot most of the snaps. If he is traded by Week 1, I bet that Damiere Byrd will be the third receiver behind Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney heading into the season.

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