Football is beloved in the U.S. not so much for the violence but for the intricacies. It’s a complex and often beautiful game that doesn’t just pit body vs. body but also mind vs. mind. That’s what makes it so exciting. There are so many different ways to win. However, at its heart football is still a sport. Winners in sports are determined by who has the best athletes. The Chicago Bears know this well but didn’t apply the lesson enough over the past decade.
What is the singular trademark that tends to make up a great athlete? Anybody who has watched the Olympics or even the scouting combine know the answer to this question.
Speed.
Players who run and play fast tend to have the greatest impact, regardless of the position they play. Football isn’t about toughness or physicality. It’s about who can get to the critical point on the field first with more guys. One of the reasons the Lovie Smith defenses were so effective was because they had 11 guys flying to the football. When they couldn’t do that anymore, it fell apart. Since then the Bears have looked old and slow.
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According to several sources, that’s no longer the case.
I'll have few more random (and prob meaningless) nuggets following today's OTA. But after seeing 2018 #Bears for first time, albeit running around in shorts, yesterday, easily my biggest takeaway is that they've gone from lacking team speed forever to fast all over the field.
— Arthur Arkush (@ArthurArkush) June 6, 2018
2. Speed- Cohen, Gabriel, Miller (quicker than fast) & maybe Mizzell.
This is an element the #Bears have severely lacked for a long damn time. How Nagy mixes Cohen & Gabriel will be super fun to watch.
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) May 31, 2018
Roquan Smith working as a first teamer today. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio says he’s “fast” and “smart”.
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) May 30, 2018
Chicago Bears speed is more evident than ever before
It’s apparent from the outset what the mission was for GM Ryan Pace and new head coach Matt Nagy: make the Bears faster. For the longest time, the team operated with a sort of “bigger is better” mentality. That’s not to say it was a terrible thing. It had some solid success in 2013 with the one-two punch of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery.
However, it wasn’t enough. Speed, on the other hand, can mean everything. Think that’s oversimplified. Well here’s an interesting stat. Based on the NextGen stats from NFL.com for fastest ball carriers of 2017, here were the top 10 teams the players on the list represented.
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- San Francisco 49ers
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Tennessee Titans
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Baltimore Ravens
- Los Angeles Rams
The interesting about that list? Five of the eight teams involved went to the playoffs and another (the Ravens) finished with a 9-7 record. Speed can make up for so many things. It helps to correct mistakes on the field or to quickly counter a loss of momentum with a big play. Ask the Bears how often Devin Hester’s speed was insanely valuable to them.
The bottom line is fast teams are hard to play because they can cover the entire field, on both offense and defense. Akiem Hicks made a great point when talking about the revamped Bears offense.
“It’s faster. Overall it’s just blazing. Everybody’s catching [passes] and everybody on the offensive side, they just look a little bit fresher and a little bit quicker and more likely to make a play. And then the offense, there are so many dang moving parts, it gives us fits in practice.”
Throw in the speedy Smith at inside linebacker for the defense, and it often looks like a swirling maelstrom on the practice field. This is precisely what the Bears wanted. If they can add smarts and discipline on top of all that speed? This team will be hard to contain for 60 minutes each week.
