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Chicago Bears Offseason WorkBook 2019

Chicago Bears
2018 Record: (12-4) 1st NFC North

2018 Season Recap:

Offense
Points: 26.3 (9th)
Yards: 343.9 (21st)
Pass Yards: 222.8 (21st)
Rush Yards: 121.1 (11th)

Defense
Points:  17.7 (1st)
Yards: 299.7 (3rd)
Pass Yards: 219.7 (7th)
Rush Yards: 80.0 (1st)

After an abysmal 2017 season which saw the Bears finish last in the NFC North, massive change over to the team occurred leaving 2018 expectations up in the air. While Bears ownership chose to move in a direction guided by offseason output, Coach Matt Nagy surly had his work cut out for him.

Matt Nagy was an aspiring up and comer who received his offensive tutelage from a master in his own right (Andy Reid), and tasked with propelling this Bears squad to another level behind second year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

It was abundantly clear that if this Bears team would have any ambitions to improve, adding talent to the offense would be the primary objective. Signing a plethora of players to help this rebuild move quicker, along with drafting more depth pieces with bright futures, Chicago hit the nail on the head in almost all categories. Having secured Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, and Trey Burton from the open market while drafting rookie Anthony Miller, expectations naturally rose given that this offense could form into something explosive.

While most of the headlines rumbled around improving this offense, Chicago added to one of the best defensive groups from a year prior in both the draft and through a blockbuster trade. Drafting rookie Roquan Smith in the first round of the 2018 draft was absolute genius to solidify a line backing core that could rival the best in the league. Understanding that this defense could carry this club late in the year, the Bears pulled off a deal to obtain superstar Khalil Mack from the Raiders. With all pieces now in place for Nagy’s first season as an NFL head coach, we ourselves became excited for the prospects.

The Bears opened the season on the road to the Packers, showing they were in fact a force, able to compete with the best in their division, only to lose by one point. Regrouping and finding good fortune while building chemistry, Chicago was able to string together three straight victories before their bye in week 5.         

After coming off a restful week, the Bears endured a catastrophic loss to the Dolphins (lead by backup Brock Osweiler) and missing a glorious opportunity to sneak by the Patriots, bringing their record to 3-3 entering the mid way point of the year. Having a lighter schedule upcoming, coach Nagy corralled his troops to win the next five contests, some with great distinction and domination. Seeing a sidestep in week 13 and dropping one to the New York Giants, the Bears had perhaps the toughest test on their plate facing the LA Rams the following week.

In our eyes, the game verse the high-flying Rams really put on display what this Bears group was about. Witnessing their defense stifle one of the best offensive units in the entire league (held to six points), proved this Bears team could do some damage in the postseason. Riding high off that week 14 win, the Bears closed out the season winning their last 3 contests and winning the division for the first time since 2010.

Extreme excitement filled the streets of Chicago as the Bears hosted the Super Bowl Champs and Nick Foles on Wildcard weekend.

The first half started with both teams trading shots down the field but surrendering to the perfection of both defensive groups. The second half played much like the first until the later stages of the third quarter where Foles found his tight end for the first touchdown of the game. As the Bears came back and answered with a field goal, the defense tightened up allowing Trubisky to more opportunity in the forth quarter to score a touchdown putting the Bears up 15-10 late in the game.    

With everything riding on this great Bears defense holding the Eagles out of the endzone, Foles orchestrated another magical drive ending with Golden Tate finding pay-dirt with less than one-minute remaining in the contest. When all looked grim for Chicago, speedster Tarik Cohen busted a huge return, followed by a handsome completion from Trubisky to Robinson placing the Bears in field goal range to win the game. With 10 seconds on the clock, the hopes of the Bears postseason rested on the right foot of Cody Parkey, to which he failed the team by hitting the left upright.

A season filled with so much hope and promise fell in disaster and dismay for all Bears faithful.  


2019 Offseason WorkBook:

The Coaching Staff
Normally when any squad has the success which the Bears had in 2018, other teams begin to pilfer talented minds to run their clubs.

While most of the Bears staff has remained the same outside of speciality coaching changes, the biggest name to have found a new home is defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. The Denver Broncos felt the need for a change and believe that Fangio will be the perfect fit.

Trying to find a replacement for the leader of one of the best defensive units in the NFL, the Bears chose to hire Chuck Pagano formally the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Pagano once held great esteem in the league from his time with the Ravens but found himself out of football last season after uneven showings with the Colts. He will have big shoes to fill this season, but we feel this is a sound hire.

The Offense
Coming into the 2018 season, we were intrigued with the potential this group could produce with the added weapons and collection of youth now on the roster.

Starting with Mitchell Trubisky, we had our reservations that he would be able to develop properly but were greatly encouraged when Nagy was chosen to provide that instruction. While Mitchell hasn’t been able to complete a full sixteen game slate in his young career due to injuries, he showed fantastic improvement in year two. Coach Nagy tailored the offense in ways which would be conducive to his abilities with roll outs and run options a plenty. Seeing his completion percentage shoot up to 66% was a welcomed sight, and we feel further steps forward should transpire in year three.

The Bears running attack behind Jordan Howard left something to be desired this past season as he wasn’t able to hit the 1000-yard mark for the first time in his short career. It was clear when reviewing the statistics, Howard lost touches to both Cohen and Trubisky, but shouldn’t have seen the drop off in yards per carry like we witnessed. Housing a 3.7 average per carry is quite baffling given the increased options in the pass game. We fully believe Howard should see a return to better numbers this season as the Bears get more comfortable with the Nagy system.

While Chicago does possess a great deal of talent at the wide receiver position, understanding how to appropriately utilize them all will be the greater challenge. Perhaps the greatest downfall to this group was the over usage of Tarik Cohen in the pass game as he led all players in catches this past season. Allen Robinson again missed time to injuries, but if he can remain healthy, he should have no problem taking the next step in year two with the Bears. Getting Anthony Miller to become a bigger part of this offense would be our first recommendation, one which we know coach Nagy will undoubtedly already be working on.

This Bears offense has the potential to become a high-powered group in year two of this offensive installation, and behind a sound offensive line, sky is literally the limit. 

The Defense
What can we say about this defensive group that the Bears employ? Describing them with words like fantastic, phenomenal, elite, is quite fitting in our eyes.

When Khalil Mack became a member of this team, the final important piece of the puzzle was in place for this unit to grow into the best in the league. There is no question that teams can always improve, and like the rest, Chicago has room to get better.

The defensive line led the way in the sack department with Mack and Hicks producing 20 sacks between the two of them with the rest of the group piling up a whopping 50 on the campaign. Getting to the quarterback wasn’t an issue for this defense and should get stronger with a solid draft class.

As we mentioned above, adding line backer Roquan Smith to the fold lifted this core to another level as the rookie was able to become the team leader in tackles for 2018 with 121. Teamed with Danny Trevathan also securing 102 tackles for the year, clogging up the middle of the field while adding heavy run support drove this defense and allowed the line to find opposing quarterbacks. Not even speaking about star Leonard Floyd leaves us licking our chops at how great this group will be in the new year. 

Feeling as though we are only singing the praises of the defense, it continues with the play of the secondary. Led by Eddie Jackson and Kyle Fuller - who were responsible for stealing the ball a healthy 13 times alone, the rest played well enough to keep this unit rolling. Though we have never been great supporters of Prince Amukamara, he impressed us with his ability to make tackles in key situations while holding the 4th spot in tackles on the team, very impressive. With Adrian Amos and Bryce Callahan rounding out the rest of this group, adding depth should be on the menu while pushing the starters.

This Bears defense might take a slight sidestep with a new coordinator calling the shots, but we have no doubt that they will again find a way to lead the league in many categories.

Team Free Agents / Team Salary Cap
General Manager Ryan Pace has done a solid job in building this team, especially on the defensive side of the ball. But with great success will come grave headaches when trying to keep such a talented bunch together for the long term. Already the Bears find themselves in salary cap trouble only housing a meek 11 million (+$11,613,601) in free space. Finding ways to get creative will be the challenge Pace will have from day one of this offseason.

Chicago currently has 21 players looking for new contracts this offseason - starting with priority player Adrian Amos. He will without question be the club’s top choice to resign but may find it incredibly difficult to meet his asking price. Bryce Callahan also finds himself on the outside looking in and may choose to find another team willing to overpay for his services come March 13th. Outside of those two players, the list is arguably filled with interchangeable pieces that can be gathered and replenished in the draft.   

Though its hard to argue that money spent was a bad choice when the team has success, reviewing the books this season does leave little wiggle room for this team to improve outside of the NFL draft. The Bears did grossly overpay for certain players this past offseason which may come back to bite them even as close as next season. Our goal is to attempt finding ways secure more funds off the books in favorable contracts, but in the Bears case, we don’t see great return on cutting to find funds.

As of today, Akiem Hicks, Charles Leno, Kyle Long, Danny Tervathan offer the most benefit to cut with cap savings applied, but releasing any of these players off this roster would be an exercise in stupidity, as replacing their productivity would be near impossible. At this point the Bears should stay the course with their cap troubles and add talent in the draft, while ignoring free agency all together.

The NFL Draft
While we thought Chicago had issues with their cap, having little to work with in the draft will pose to be a gigantic issue for this club in 2019.

Currently the Bears house only 5 picks in the 2019 draft, including having no selections in the first two rounds. Chicago will have their chance to pick with the 87th overall choice all the way in the third round.

The Bears also are missing their sixth-round pick while adding an extra 7th rounder to the books will go marginally unnoticed. Even though we are great supporters of what the Bears have in place, mortgaging the future while mismanaging the salary cap is always prime for future disaster.

This club could be on the fringe of being a super bowl contender in the very near future, but their window will close faster than most simply on how they are built.

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