Before I begin, I want to welcome all of you back to our Bears Mailbag. We’d gone on a little hiatus given the lull in NFL activity the last couple of months. But now that training camp is approaching quickly, it’s a good time to start up again!
No lengthy preamble this week — let’s dive right in to the Mailbag. A big thank you to everyone who submitted questions! As always, we appreciate the participation. And if you want to continue the discussion about anything below, hit me up on Twitter: @DhruvKoul.
What’s your sleeper trade that the Bears will make by opening day
— Johnny O'Graddy (@JohnnyOGraddy) July 12, 2018
The Bears did a very good job improving the talent at a lot of key positions this offseason. They upgraded the weaponry for quarterback Mitch Trubisky, adding playmakers Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, and Trey Burton to the mix. They fortified their offensive line with the selection of Iowa OL James Daniels, who is sure to start from Day 1. And they upgraded their linebacking corps, taking arguably the best defensive player in the draft in ILB Roquan Smith, whom many have compared to Na’Vorro Bowman and even Lance Briggs.
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But the biggest area of concern right now is the same biggest area of concern the Bears began the offseason with: EDGE depth. Leonard Floyd is coming off an injury and has yet to prove he’s an elite EDGE rusher given his draft pedigree (though I do think he’s a good overall OLB who covers very well). They parted ways with multiple veterans in the offseason, too. They added Aaron Lynch in free agency in hopes that his bundle of talent will shine again under Vic Fangio. They also added Kylie Fitts in the sixth round of the draft, and while he has talent, he has injury concerns. Other youngsters that could help, such as Isaiah Irving and Elijah Norris, are still very much unproven.
So I would certainly imagine the Bears are still scouring the market for EDGE help, in any form. Of course, a lot can and will change between now and Week 1 when the Bears take on Green Bay at Lambeau Field. Teams will trim their rosters from 90 to 53, so many veterans and promising players that didn’t quite make the cut will be available. So expect some acquisitions at that time.
But since you asked for trade, I’m going to say Shaq Lawson from the Buffalo Bills. There were rumors that the Bears were interested in Shane Ray of the Denver Broncos, but those rumors have cooled, even with Denver’s selection of Bradley Chubb in the first round of the draft. Lawson has an injury history and, for myriad reasons, has not broken out in Buffalo the way Rex Ryan believed he would.
I don’t believe Lawson is a perfect fit for the Bears, but he has talent and I liked him coming out of Clemson. SM Insider Erik Lambert recently detailed how the Bears could approach this and attempt to land the former first-rounder. In my opinion, it’s certainly worth a late-round offer to secure his services. If he’s cut and the Bears can get him for just money? That’s even better. But the Bears need talent and depth at EDGE in the worst way to have any chance of making noise this season. Lawson would be a step in the right direction.
Aside from the obvious starters, which players are you most excited to see play in preseason?
— Feltz14 (@logan_feltner) July 12, 2018
We all know how big this preseason is for the Bears — I don’t have to go back and rehash how much has changed since the end of the John Fox era on New Year’s Day.
Obviously, Mitch Trubisky is the most important player on the team. He has to make strides this preseason and hit the ground running as best as possible by Week 1 in this offense. If he’s not getting it done, the Bears are in trouble. Of course, the other starters and projected starters, as you mentioned, are important to watch, too.
That said, there are many players I’m interested in watching as they compete for playing time and even roster spots. A few names to watch, in no particular order:
- Chase Daniel / Tyler Bray (QB)
- Bilal Nichols / Jonathan Bullard / Roy Robertson-Harris (DL)
- Aaron Lynch / Kylie Fitts / Isaiah Irving / Elijah Norris (EDGE)
- James Daniels / Dejon Allen (OL)
- Anthony Miller / Javon Wims / Bennie Fowler (WR)
- Ryan Nall / Taquan Mizzell (RB)
- Joel Iyiegbuniwe / Nick Kwiatkoski (LB)
- Kevin Toliver / Michael Joseph (CB)
You’ll notice some of the names are projected starters already, such as Lynch, Daniels, Bullard, and Miller. But I’m still excited to see how they perform and watch them for their continued development.
Also, why am I excited to watch the backup QBs? Because a team’s fate can change in an instant if the starting QB goes down. I want to know that the backup is at least competent. Daniel has backed up Drew Brees and Alex Smith now during his career, and comes recommended from former coaches for his preparation. Hopefully he can play, if needed, too. But let’s hope we never have to find out.
Any chance the Bears pursue outside pass rush options via trade or claiming waived players? If so, any insight on possible outside rush help that may hit free agency? Have a great day!
— Matt Andrews (@Wtlarrys) July 12, 2018
See my response to the first question above on Shaq Lawson. There will certainly be players that can help the Bears after final cuts, given that 32 teams will be going from 90 players to 53, and then forming practice squads afterwards.
You can bet that the Bears will be going after EDGE players. It remains to be seen who all is available at the time, however.
What about Mitch Trubisky's game inspires you? Not stats. Not scheme. Not weapons. Just him. What does he do well?
— When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong (@BMADFTS) July 13, 2018
I figured @BMADFTS might ask this question in the Mailbag one day. For some background: We’ve had quite a few interactions on Twitter about the NFL, though I forget what started it all. It seems we actually share similar opinions on many players, so it seems we look for/at many of the same things.
However, when it comes to the topic of Mitch Trubisky, we’ve never agreed. He is not a believer in Mitch and hasn’t been since the beginning, whereas I’m optimistic that Trubisky will be a good quarterback (though I readily admit we need to see significant progress this year). I know you asked about Trubisky’s skill-set only and what I think he does well. So here goes:
This is well documented and a pretty obvious first point for many, but to me, his best skill is his mobility and accuracy on the move. The Bears have decent but not elite tackles, and so his ability to escape is important, which also marries well with his ability to throw on the move. And I seriously think his moving accuracy is elite already. He showed quite a few snippets of it in his debut against Minnesota and then again against Baltimore. It baffled me that the Bears didn’t make this a focus point in their game-planning often or creatively enough. Moving on …
Trubisky got great praise pre-draft for his overall accuracy. While I didn’t think it was always spectacular (he had some trouble throwing to his left this year, and usually it was a matter of not having his feet set), I wasn’t too concerned about it. He made plenty of Aaron Rodgers-esque throws throughout the year that eased my concerns. His TD to Dion Sims against Baltimore, third-down conversion to Kendall Wright to get into game-winning FG range against Baltimore, and his should-have-been TD to Zach Miller in New Orleans come to mind, among others. And while footwork is not easy to improve, it can be done.
He has the arm strength to make every NFL throw, and as the season wore on, I noticed he also got much better at going through his progressions, anticipating throws, and throwing receivers open, something I really wanted to see after his college tape. His back-shoulder throw to Markus Wheaton at Ford Field on 3rd-and-18 late in the game is an example that sticks well in my head.
One underrated aspect is his leadership — from all accounts and media reports, the players genuinely like, respect, and enjoy playing with Trubisky. It might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but that extra excitement and juice in the huddle can make a difference over the course of a game and season. I’m not sure I always saw that with Jay Cutler, and this is coming from someone who loves and adores Jay Cutler (see my Twitter timeline, you’ll know).
Trubisky could stand to be a bit more aware in the pocket and perhaps make quicker decisions. But I truly wonder how much of that was coaching last year. John Fox was so ridiculously conservative that I wouldn’t be surprised if they beat caution into his brain to the point of insanity. The most egregious example is this sack he took against the Packers at Soldier Field (picture courtesy of NBC Sports Chicago).
Trubisky has two open receivers — Dontrelle Inman deep (the yellow arrow defender’s hips are in an advantageous position for the Bears but Trubisky isn’t set to throw deep), and Josh Bellamy circled in red. This could be an easy completion to Bellamy, but he sees Davon House lurking (also in red) and surprisingly decides to hang on to the ball and take the sack. It’s absolutely and unjustifiably a bad decision, but it’s so egregious that I can’t help but wonder if Trubisky was gun shy because of his coach; especially given what had happened already with the Fox challenge to turn 1st-and-Goal at the 1 into a touchback.
It’s things like this that I hope to get answered quickly this year, and truly believe Matt Nagy will help Trubisky put things together. I saw enough over the course of the year to believe Trubisky has talent worth being developed, and while it was a frustrating 12 starts, I felt better about him as a QB than I did when they took him on draft night. That’s what I was hoping for.
Player evaluation is subjective and I can completely understand if the concerns I bring up that I’m “okay with” for now are big red flags for you. That’s the beauty of us getting to watch it play out together as fans. And while I agree that some, if not many, of Trubisky’s face-value improvements this year will have a lot to do with scheme, Trubisky has enough to improve skills-wise that scheme won’t make all the difference.
I’m not expecting Trubisky to be ‘elite’ this year, whatever that really means. Hell, I’m not even expecting him to be in the top 12. But if he’s even average in Year 2 and Year 1 of the Matt Nagy era, the Bears have a good enough defense and good enough playmakers (if healthy) to contend for the playoffs, and perhaps even make it. And for his development in subsequent years, success can bring about improvements automatically.
