As the 4-8 Chicago Bears prepare to head north to Green Bay for a Sunday night game against the Packers at Lambeau Field, Brad Biggs takes a spin through the weekly Bears mailbag.
Among this week’s topics: a rebuilding timeline, Allen Robinson’s hamstring injury and why on earth the Bears-Packers game is in prime time.
Realistically, how long will this new rebuild take to produce a playoff berth? With the salary-cap situation, aging players and limited draft picks plus a whole new scheme on both sides of the ball, are there enough building blocks to turn it around fast? Two years? — @donaldguy2
That’s a great question — actually a series of questions — with a ton of unknowns. Many, many variables are in play, and decisions will directly impact others in a series. There’s no way of telling what kind of organizational change the Bears will make at the end of the season and how deep it will run. It’s impossible to gauge how any newcomers will feel about the core of the roster in place. The Bears will have a decent amount of cap space after the season and the ability to create additional room with some moves, and according to spotrac.com, only 27 players are currently under contract for 2022. Add four players scheduled to be exclusive-rights free agents and three restricted free agents, and that creates a ton of flexibility for a potential new regime. It also points to a situation in which the cap space could be gobbled up in a hurry if the team makes some big signings to fill key holes such as wide receiver and cornerback.
If Justin Fields develops into the franchise quarterback the Bears hope he becomes, a reboot of the franchise will happen sooner rather than later. Elite quarterbacks have a way of raising the level of play of everyone around them and masking areas of the roster that might not be as strong. There’s no way of telling right now if Fields will be that guy. If he’s somewhere in between, the process will take longer. If Fields isn’t the long-term answer, well, the Bears are right back where they’ve always been: trying to find their way in a league in which it’s nearly impossible to compete on a regular basis without an elite quarterback. The Bears have some building blocks for the future and some young players who should continue to improve, but they don’t have a lot of game changers — players who can tilt the field for them consistently on Sundays — and that has shown up this season time and time again.
Pinning the whole thing on Fields isn’t fair and isn’t an accurate way of describing the situation, but when you’re talking about the roster and the Bears’ ability to contend for a playoff spot, he’s absolutely the most critical piece of the puzzle. His rookie season has been up and down, and the Bears desperately need to be better offensively in 2022 if they want to win. While they’re doing that, they have to pay attention to a defense that is a shadow of what it was when Matt Nagy came on board in 2018. There’s a lot of work to do, and while I wish I could provide a more definitive answer, too many unknowns cloud the future. In a best-case scenario, the Bears are a threat in 2023 with young players in place who give them a chance to grow and improve. With a shortage of draft capital in 2022, that will be challenging.
What compelled the NFL to keep the Bears-Packers game in prime time? Why didn’t the league flex the schedule and put a better game in that slot? — Doc C., Roselle
The short answer is it’s a particularly bad weekend of matchups. The league doesn’t have a full inventory of games to choose from. The Thursday (Steelers-Vikings) and Monday (Rams-Cardinals) games are locked in, and this is the final week with teams on a bye: the Colts, Dolphins, Patriots and Eagles. So that’s eight teams out of the mix. The only game Sunday between two teams with winning records is the Bills at the Buccaneers at 3:25 p.m. on CBS. Fox and CBS get a certain number of games each season they can “lock” to prevent the league from moving them to prime time, and it would be a stunner if CBS didn’t protect the Bills-Bucs game before the season.
The rest of the slate is meh with some lopsided matchups. Bears-Packers is one of six games that had a point spread of 7½ or more Tuesday morning. The Ravens at the Browns is an AFC North battle with postseason implications, but NBC had that same pairing just two weeks ago. Washington is surging, having won four consecutive games to reach 6-6, and hosts the Cowboys (8-4), but those teams are scheduled to play in the NBC slot on Dec. 26. The Chiefs are hosting the Raiders this week and the networks love to showcase Patrick Mahomes. But the Chiefs were on NBC last week and the Nov. 14 Chiefs-Raiders game also aired on NBC.
Basically, there isn’t another game on the schedule that was even semi-appealing to the NFL, so the league stuck with the largest television market that has only one team — Chicago. The Packers always perform well with viewers in prime time.
This marks only the third time since the start of the 2010 season the Bears will play in prime time with a record of four or more games below .500. They were 1-5 when they went to Green Bay for a 26-10 loss on Oct. 20, 2016. They were on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” the following week and defeated the Minnesota Vikings 20-10 at Soldier Field. That was Jay Cutler’s last win as the Bears starting quarterback.
How does the defensive backfield grade out compared to the rest of the league? — @paulbau80770126
That depends on how you look at it. Overall, the Bears’ numbers against the pass are decent. They rank sixth in the league allowing 207.8 passing yards per game and 21st in yards per attempt at 7.01. They are No. 1 in sacks per pass play at 9.27%. They rank 22nd in opponents completion percentage at 67.1% and 28th in opponents passer rating at 103.0. They are tied for ninth having allowed 34 pass plays of 20 or more yards, and the breakdowns that plagued the secondary at the start of the season have become less common. Jaylon Johnson has played really well and continues to improve, while fellow cornerback Kindle Vildor struggled to the point he had to be benched. Free safety Eddie Jackson has certainly helped the pass defense, and I think strong safety Tashaun Gipson has been average or fine when you consider what he’s being paid.
The Bears are need an upgrade at the nickel position and really have to look closely at the secondary entering the offseason. Could it be better? Yes. Does it need to be better? No question. But considering what defensive coordinator Sean Desai had to work with — we knew depth would be an issue at cornerback at the start of the season — I think the pass defense has been about as good as could be expected. One issue plaguing the defense as a whole is a lack of takeaways. The Bears are tied for 28th with only 11 takeaways, and not coincidentally they’re tied for 29th in turnover differential at minus-8. With a struggling offense, it’s hard to play winning football that way.
Have we seen the last of Allen Robinson? It is beginning to look like he has a “business hammy” and will have it for the rest of the year to prevent himself from getting injured in anticipation of free agency. Thoughts? — @twashington1029
I understand what you are saying, and certainly veteran players headed to the open market have an injury risk and don’t want to put bad tape out there if they’re playing but not close to 100%. However, I don’t get the sense that’s how Robinson is wired. Is he happy with how things have played out with the Bears? No. He would have preferred a massive contract extension to playing this season under the franchise tag. But as Robinson has said, only so much of the situation was in his control. Robinson has always come across as a consummate professional, and he’s probably working as hard as he can behind the scenes to be available before the season ends. He was injured at the end of the Nov. 8 game in Pittsburgh, and depending on the severity, hamstring injuries sometimes take longer than a month to heal. Unless this injury is significant — and if it was, the team likely would have placed him on injured reserve by now — I imagine we will see Robinson back in action sooner rather than later. With a little good fortune, he might be on the field Sunday night against the Packers.
What draft picks do the Bears own in 2022? — Cliff D., Chicago
The Bears have their own picks in Rounds 2, 3, 5 and 6. They have an extra fifth-round pick via the Houston Texans as part of the Anthony Miller trade. The Bears are without first- and fourth-round picks to complete the deal with the New York Giants to move up and draft quarterback Justin Fields. They also shipped their seventh-round pick with Miller to the Texans to move up two rounds.
So the Bears have five picks — two of which likely will be in the top 75. The Bears are not projected to be awarded any compensatory draft picks.
One thing I noticed during the Bears-Cardinals game was most Bears receivers chose to forgo gloves due to the rainy weather, while most Cardinals receivers kept theirs on. The Bears had drop problems and the Cardinals less so. How do you think the two teams ended up using opposing approaches to the exact same issue given each team is provided gloves? Is it down to player choice, or does each equipment manager help decide? — Jacob K., Chicago
Fair question. But it looked to me like nearly all of the Bears skill-position players were wearing gloves. Tight end Cole Kmet had gloves on, and he had the most critical drop of the game in the red zone that led to a 77-yard interception return for Cardinals safety Budda Baker. Darnell Mooney was wearing gloves. Jakeem Grant had gloves on. So did Damiere Byrd. It’s a personal choice for players, and some will wear gloves no matter what the weather is. Some choose depending on the conditions. I don’t think gloves — or the lack of them — were a factor in the game.