With the Super Bowl behind us, teams are forced to move on from the 2022 season and look towards 2023. In a series of articles, we will recap the past season, and look at how teams are positioned at their skill positions for next September.
Chicago Bears
Projected Cap Space: $98.895 Million
Upcoming Draft Picks: Round 1 (9th), Round 2 (53rd, 61st), Round 3 (64th), Round 4 (103rd, 133rd), Round 5 (137th,159th), Round 7 (220th)
Thanks to some late game heroics in the season’s final week by the Houston Texans, the Bears “earned” the number 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, finishing the season with a grand total of 3 wins and 14 losses. Chicago had a decision to make – let their relatively new coaching group hand select their own starting quarterback, or trust in their ability to continue the development of Justin Fields.
The Bears were quick to make their choice, as prior to free agency opening up, the Bears opted to move that pick to the Carolina Panthers for a return that included the #9 overall pick, a 1st rounder for next season, wide receiver D.J. Moore and two additional 2nd round picks. Chicago has already done the dirty work involved with a full scale rebuild, including replacing the entire coaching staff after the 2021 campaign, and tearing down the roster to its studs, so much so that the Bears enter the offseason with the most available cap space by an incredible $29 million. They will now shift their focus on building their supporting cast and surrounding franchise quarterback Justin Fields with more talent and more importantly, more protection.
Coaching:
The Bears front office decided to purge their entire coaching staff following the 2021 season, opting to hire a new crew that brings with them years of NFL coaching success and experience. While their first season together cannot be considered a success, the overall lack of talent on the roster has to be taken into consideration before judging their inaugural year.
The Bears started with the hiring of former Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus as head coach in January of 2022. Eberflus boasts over 30 years of coaching experience, 13 of those spent in the NFL. He spent much of his career as a linebackers coach, and is credited with the development and breakthrough of Shaquille Leonard during his tenure in Indianapolis. The Bear’s defense was ranked at the bottom of the league during Eberflus’ first season, and losing elite linebacker Roquan Smith at the end of October to a trade with the Ravens certainly didn’t help improve Eberflus’ fortunes. The Bears now have a clean slate when it comes to the roster, and Eberflus will be able to begin to rebuild a roster that matches his coaching philosophies.
Joining Eberflus in 2022 was newly appointed offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. Getsy spent the previous 7 years in the Packers organization, and was the quarterbacks coach in 2020 when Aaron Rogers won the MVP. While not close to perfect, the Bears offense started to come together in the second half of the season, with quarterback Justin Fields taking obvious strides in his development.
Getsy was able to utilize Fields’ athletic ability to open up the offense, turning the 2nd year player into a true dual threat quarterback. Fields also improved as a passer, increasing his touchdown total by 10 in only 3 more games from 2021 to 2022. He has a long way to go before he’s considered a high end quarterback, but the strides he has shown under Getsy are encouraging.
Alan Williams joined the team in February of 2022, and like Eberflus and Getsy, brings with him plenty of experience, having coached in the NFL in some capacity for 21 seasons. He has a familiarity with Eberflus after spending 4 seasons together in Indy, where Williams worked mainly as the safeties coach. Under their guidance, the Colts defense was the only unit in the NFL to rank in the top 10 in scoring, run defense and takeaways between the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Williams also had success while coaching in Detroit, leading cornerback Darious Slay to his first career Pro-Bowl selection and the Detroit defense as a whole to the top 10 in interceptions and returns for touchdowns. Williams will look to turn around the defense in 2023, but will need upgrades at almost every position outside of free safety, where Eddie Jackson continues his elite level play.
Quarterbacks:
The Chicago Bears took Justin Fields 11th overall in the 2021 NFL entry draft. He was considered to be a project quarterback with an extremely high ceiling, but was tapped to be the starter by week 3 in his rookie year. Fields has ideal size, and rated at the top of his class in athleticism metrics at the combine, so Getsy was wise to adapt his offense to utilize Fields’ natural gifts as an athlete.
Fields improved his yards per rush from 5.78 to 7.14, and doubled his rushing yards per game from 2021 to 2022, averaging 76.2 yards per game in his sophomore year. He still has a lot to learn as an NFL passer, as his tendency to lock onto his first read has followed him from his college days. Working with a weak offensive line and limited options at wide receiver mitigates these concerns, although Chicago would love to see another big leap in his development in year 3. Behind Fields, veteran clipboard holder Trevor Siemian is back for another season, and the Bears will likely look to free agency to sign another veteran to act as another mentor for their young signal caller.
Wide Receiver/Tight End:
2020 5th round pick Darnell Mooney was pegged as the de facto number 1 receiver on the offense after breaking out for over 1,000 yards in 2021, but finished 2022 with under 500 yards and dropped his yards per game average by over 20 after suiting up for only 12 contests.
The Bears also inexplicably spent a 2nd round pick to acquire Chase Claypool from the Pittsburgh Steelers in a midseason trade after the Steelers put him on the market due to his declining production in his third season. He was a huge risk at the time, as the likelihood of the Bears making the playoffs was miniscule, so wasting what we now know to be 32nd overall pick for a player that rarely seems engaged is frankly a flabbergasting move.
Taking fliers on N’Keal Harry, Byron Pringle and Dante Pettis came without much risk this past offseason, as they’re all now free agents, but they combined for a grand total of 35 receptions this past year. The Bears needed to improve their wide receiver group, and got off to an early start by including 5 year receiver D.J. Moore in the trade with the Panthers. Moore, who is signed for another 3 seasons, topped 1,100 yards in three consecutive years in Carolina, despite shaky quarterback play.
He’s a true number one wide receiver that will help push the rest of the receivers down the depth chart into positions more suited for their skill set. Mooney is talented, but clearly isn’t ready to face the number one cornerback on the opposing defense week after week. Claypool is flawed, and sometimes lacks focus, but he has the talent to be one of the best 3rd wide receivers in the league. If the Bears truly want Fields to develop into a legitimate passer at this level, they needed to make serious improvements within their wide receiver group. And getting the Panthers to include Moore was an excellent decision that will improve almost every aspect of this offense.
At tight end, the Bears are still waiting for their 2020 2nd round pick Cole Kmet to fully break out. He averaged an impressive 10.88 yards per reception, a 72.5% catch rate and brought in 7 touchdowns in 2022, and entering a contract season, all the pieces are there for him to enter into the top 10 conversation amongst tight ends in the league.
One key factor holding him back is that Getsy’s offenses, going back to his days as a coordinator in college, often ignore the tight end in the passing game, instead relying on them to stay in and block. If Getsy can change his tendencies and scheme to get Kmet up to about 6-7 targets a game he could potentially lead this offense in receiving touchdowns and give Fields a dangerous mismatch across the middle of the field.
Running Backs:
4 year starter David Montgomery never really took a hold of the Bears backfield during his tenure in Chicago, and has now entered the 2023 offseason looking for a contract. He finished 2022 with career lows in both rushing yards (801) and touchdowns (5), so it’s unlikely that player and franchise will reunite for another season.
Instead the Bears will look to Khalil Herbert to take over as their lead back after showing well in limited touches last season. Herbert averaged 5.67 yards per carry, compared to Montgomery’s 3.99, and consistently looked like the more explosive option next to Montgomery’s plodding running style. Herbert also put in work on special teams, returning 5 kicks for 146 yards throughout the season.
He’s more of a home run threat than Montgomery, but lacks a little bit of size to be a true 3 down back. With 2022 6th round pick Trestan Ebner the only other signed back for 2023, the Bears will be looking to add depth to the position, potentially in the form of a big red zone/short yard back.
Offensive Line:
2022 5th round pick Braxton Jones was the only player on the offensive line to play 100% of offensive snaps for the Bears in the 2022 season, with 3rd year center Sam Mustipher coming up just short. Beyond that, injuries and a lack of cohesion along the offensive line created what was predictably a tough season for the group as a whole.
2nd year guard Teven Jenkins was ranked as the 3rd best guard according to PFF, but he was in for over 90% of the snaps in only 7 games all season, and playing in less than 50% in 8 games. The line as a whole is a young group, with most of the aging veterans’ contracts expiring after the 2022 season, so the Bears will be looking to insulate their young core. Hopefully they can add a couple more high end prospects through the draft to protect their quarterback and help establish a legitimate run game. With a little more injury luck this season to allow the group to develop together, the Bears will look to have an improved unit in 2022.
Defense:
While the Bears offense underperformed, their defense was downright horrid, ranking last overall in the league, per PFF. Safety Eddie Jackson was the only bright spot along the entire defense, ranking as the 13th best safety in the league. The next highest rated returning defensive player is linebacker Jack Sanborn, who ranked 41st out of 81 eligible players.
Eberflus and Williams built their careers around the defensive side of the ball so one would have to assume that there will be a massive focus on adding to their defense this offseason, both through the draft as well as through free agency. The two coaches can scheme and gameplan all they want, but as the rosters stands, there’s just a voidof skilled players who are able to carry out the plans on the field.
The Bears still have a lot of work to do this offseason to even become a tough out every week, and are realistically a couple years away from being a true contender. Acquiring D.J. Moore is a good start, as well as acquiring an additional 2nd round pick. Don’t expect Chicago to back up the Brinks truck to the front door of every free agent available, as they still have to make prudent signings, with a massive Fields extension potentially looming in the next couple of years.
If the Bears play this right, they should be walking away from this draft with 3 high end starters to go with a few free agent signings and begin to truly show signs of turning the corner in their rebuild. After years of disappointing seasons, even seeing small steps towards progress will be considered a success to the Chicago faithful. Things might be finally looking up in the windy city.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: Joon Han. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.