ADDISON, Tx. — When I put out my Bears Mailbag tweet this week to collect questions, I had no idea I’d be scrambling in between late-night meetings to hastily answer them. But here I am, chugging coffee in a Marriott lounge, and stealing a few minutes to quickly throw thoughts together to ensure I talk some Chicago Bears football this week.
For my own sanity.
With a much anticipated, exciting, and ultimately unsurprising (to me) Super Bowl LIV result, we can officially shift our attention to the offseason. The Chicago Bears are expected to be busy, if not spendthrift, in free agency while preparing for the 2020 NFL Draft. The roster will certainly look different next year. This is Week 1 of a long offseason until football returns to our lives…
With that, I reach into this week’s Bears Mailbag. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. I always appreciate the participation. Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
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Mailbag
I could give you a lengthy and roundabout answer as to why the Bears have one of the best defenses in the league, a strong array of offensive weapons, and one of the deepest and most intriguing coaching staffs in the league now, and one of the league’s best overall head coaches. I could build my case that way.
But how about this, instead…
The Bears were littered with injuries all season — Akiem Hicks, Danny Trevathan, Kyle Long, Roquan Smith, Eddie Goldman, Sherrick McManis, and others all missed time this season. They missed a field goal from 41 yards out as time expired to lose a winnable game at home. They played a “first place” schedule. And, they had arguably the worst starting QB in the league — period — in 2019.
And they still won 8 games.
The quarterback literally cannot be worse. They just overhauled their offensive coaching staff to be more in tune with the actual scheme — better fits/more experienced coaches in the stuff that’s compatible with Matt Nagy’s scheme. There’s so much potential with this team. So much.
Just get a QB that doesn’t play like roadkill and there’s no reason this team can’t win 10+ games in 2020.
Remember that free agency winners do not always end up actual winners. The Bears have had pretty decent luck in free agency lately, though, and it’s certainly an avenue they’ll have to leverage as they look to re-tool their team for 2020.
They have a pretty healthy list of needs (starter(s) or depth pieces) — QB, TE, EDGE, ILB, CB, S, OL. And not a lot of salary cap room to get there right now — they’ll have to make some moves to officially open up cap room. (Think processing Kyle Long’s retirement, potentially cutting Prince Amukamara, negotiating a lower AAV extension with Leonard Floyd, etc.)
From a free agent perspective, pending any obvious moves like extensions and franchise tags, here are a list of intriguing FA targets I could see the Bears being interested in:
TE — Hunter Henry, Austin Hooper, Eric Ebron.
EDGE — Markus Golden, Jadeveon Clowney, Jason Pierre-Paul.
ILB — Nick Kwiatkoski, Danny Trevathan, Kevin Pierre-Louis.
CB — (Already signed Tre Roberson), A.J. Bouye (if cut.)
S — Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Eric Berry.
OL — Brandon Scherff, Graham Glasgow.
The Bears will likely keep one of their own ILB free agents, but I don’t expect it to be a splash. I’d imagine they push to keep Kwiatkoski most, given he’s a Bears’ draft pick, younger, and very good.
The splash I’d like to see is at EDGE — I’d like for them to invest in another, bona fide pass rusher opposite Khalil Mack. Golden was one of my favorite sleepers last offseason, and I’d love it if the Bears signed him this year. But if they want to make a conference-altering shift, sign Clowney. He and Mack together can almost be considered premeditated murder. (Note — this is an exaggeration, to anyone who would think I’m saying this literally.)
Yes, I do. I don’t think it can be overstated how bleepin’ bad the QB was last year. Horrific. Asinine. I said all offseason last year that ALL Mitch Trubisky had to do was play consistently average football and this team could win the Super Bowl. Instead, he was so incredibly bad that’s impressive to even consider how they won 8 games.
The running game didn’t work, either. The run blocking was bad. The wide receivers struggled at times. And Tarik Cohen was largely a non-factor.
Bring in the new coaches — the amount of help the Bears have now for QBs is mind-boggling. Matt Nagy, Bill Lazor, Dave Ragone, and John DeFilippo are all QB specialists who will both help Trubisky and identify the right talent to fill the QB room (and push Mitch for the starting job.)
Lazor and Juan Castillo (who has experience working with Nagy and knows his scheme) are tasked with the running game. It has to be better now than from a coach who philosophically differed so much from Nagy.
The Bears are set up to take a sizable step forward on offense, assuming their QB doesn’t completely f*** up. Here’s hoping he doesn’t.
