The NFL offseason is gaining steam with Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus attending their first scouting combine as Chicago Bears general manager and head coach. Soon after comes the opening of free agency March 16. As the combine rolls on through Monday in Indianapolis, the Tribune’s Brad Biggs tackles reader questions in his weekly Bears mailbag.
My fear with Matt Eberflus and the switch to a 4-3 defense will be that prioritizing the improvement of the offense will take a back seat. Please tell me I’m wrong. — @rradulski
It’s a fair concern given the quantity of needs on both sides of the ball. I’d be surprised if the Bears don’t take a balanced approach the next couple of months. Eberflus has a defensive background and will want to shore up a unit that has been in decline the last couple of years. But he’s smart enough to know his team won’t stand much of a chance unless it better supports quarterback Justin Fields. The Bears have to find multiple starters on each side of the ball. One thing I would add is this process will be ongoing. The roster won’t be completely remade between now and the cuts at the end of the preseason. To get the depth chart in a place the Bears feel better about it, you’re looking at two full offseasons, especially considering they’re short on draft picks this year.
Believing that the previous coaching staff was bad, talk me out of my belief that we’ll see a Chargers-like bump from the offense with a few tweaks to the weapons and protection for Justin Fields. — @danstarzec
You can’t compare what Fields did as a rookie to what Justin Herbert did in 2020, when he passed for 4,366 yards with 31 touchdowns and a 98.3 passer rating. The Chargers rebuilt their offensive line over the offseason. The key moves were signing Corey Linsley in free agency to a deal that made him the highest-paid center in the league and using a first-round draft pick (No. 13) on Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater, who was a Pro Bowl starter and second-team All-Pro as a rookie left tackle. If you’re talking about playmakers around the quarterback, the Chargers had two 1,100-yard wide receivers last season in Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and a dynamic pass-catching running back in Austin Ekeler. That’s a long way of saying “a few tweaks” won’t surround Fields with a comparable cast of teammates. It will take more than that.
The Chargers were pretty good on offense in 2020; they just played really bad situational football, and that wound up leading to a coaching change. They were ninth in total offense in 2020, sixth in passing offense and 11th in passer rating but only 18th in scoring. That’s better than the 2021 Bears in all of those categories, substantially in some.
Herbert got better in Year 2, passing for 5,014 yards with 38 touchdowns. His 65.9% completion percentage was nearly identical to what he posted as a rookie, and his 97.7 passer rating was actually a tick lower. The Chargers finished fourth in total offense last season, tied for second in passing offense and fifth in scoring. It’s hard to imagine the Bears being that potent in one year.
But I do believe they can make significant gains in a lot of key offensive categories. From where they’ve been, reaching the middle of the pack would constitute a big step forward. Thinking Fields will look like Herbert did in his second season is taking a giant leap right now.
Can they patch up their relationship with Allen Robinson? — @fredericknchgo
Can who patch up the relationship? GM Ryan Poles and Eberflus haven’t been involved with Robinson, so they’re not starting from a poor position. Robinson played last season under the franchise tag, and as is sometimes the case with players who get tagged, he wasn’t happy about the situation. It’s business, not personal, and it’s part of the collectively bargained agreement the league has with the players.
Robinson got a lot of money in 2021 — $17.9 million — and now he’s set to reach the open market, as he did in 2018, and sign another contract. That’s not the worst thing in the world, although he would have preferred to be a free agent a year ago. I expect him to get multiple offers with plenty of guaranteed money. Maybe he won’t get the money he was seeking from the Bears in a long-term deal, but he’s going to get paid and the Bears once again will be without a No. 1 wide receiver.
I don’t think there’s anything for the Bears to patch up. The previous front office didn’t want to meet the contract numbers Robinson was aiming for at the time. Robinson wasn’t interested in lowering his goals to meet what the team was offering. Sometimes two sides can’t reach an agreement. Those folks from the front office have departed, and Robinson becomes an unrestricted free agent March 16.
As a follow-up to your column on March 1, if Ryan Poles swings big in the first wave of free agency, which position does he target? — @mmesq11
You can make a compelling case for a lot of positions if the Bears come out of the gates with an expensive signing or two when the new league year begins March 16. If I had to pick two, I would start with the offensive line and wide receiver. Poles talked about getting the O-line right from Day 1, and without a first-round draft pick, how else can he make an impactful move there? Sure, he could re-sign James Daniels, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent, but if he wants to improve the line, he’ll be seeking to accomplish more. I mention wide receiver because the depth chart there is as bare as it gets. Poles needs to add to the receiver group in free agency and the draft, at minimum importing two players who can be productive for Fields.
If you wanted to build a case for a defensive tackle, cornerback or even another interior linebacker, you could find compelling reasons. But I will stick with the O-line and wide receiver for now.
If the Bears do not re-sign James Daniels, what round of a compensatory draft pick do you expect they will they get? — @latherowlaw
As I have written many times in this space, compensatory draft picks are awarded based on a team’s net losses in free agency. If a team loses more players who qualify as compensatory free agents (CFAs) than it signs, it is awarded a pick (or picks). Daniels will get good money, but if the Bears pay another free-agent lineman similar money or more, those moves could cancel each other out, meaning losing Daniels wouldn’t necessarily put the Bears in position for a comp pick in 2023. Considering the Bears’ large number of free agents — I believe the figure is 26 — it’s possible they could be in line for compensation in 2023. Robinson should sign a lucrative deal elsewhere. Defensive lineman Akiem Hicks is likely moving on and possibly Bilal Nichols. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for a team that rarely has benefited from compensatory picks. We’ll see how Poles plays things once the new league year begins.
Odds of Tarik Cohen being a salary-cap casualty? — @deetrain1494
The term “cap casualty” is often misused. If the Bears wind up terminating Cohen’s contract, it won’t be due to the salary-cap figure for the running back and former Pro Bowl returner. It will be because he has missed 31 consecutive games after tearing an ACL early in the 2020 season, with an obvious complication in his recovery that the team has not shed any light on. Cohen is owed $4 million for 2022, and right now $2.5 million of that is guaranteed for injury. My hunch is the team will part ways with him, but no one has told me that. It just seems like a lot to pay a returner and gadget player on offense who really hasn’t made an offensive impact since the 2018 season.
Is there a world where the Bears go after a WR1 who is under 6 feet? General opinion seems to be that Darnell Mooney is talented but not a WR1. Are we talking prototype 6-foot-2-plus guy who excels in the area of contested catches or is there more scope than that for who the Bears can add at WR? — @kalamityjim
That’s a good question, and Poles touched on the subject Tuesday when he was asked about the position. The answer is there’s no defined checklist for a wide receiver in terms of measurables.
“They come in different shapes and sizes and speeds,” Poles said. “It comes down to playmakers. We saw that in the Super Bowl. Guys that can make plays when their number is called, and that’s what we look for and you can see that on college tape. I will say one of the benefits of the combine is you get to see some of the physical traits as well — what sets them apart. Is it size, is it length, is it explosion, is it speed? We’ll put all that together. But I would say that all boils down just to being a playmaker.”
Tyreek Hill is 5-foot-10. Cooper Kupp is 6-2, but he’s slow compared with other elite wide receivers. Both are No. 1 threats, though. In a perfect world, you’re seeking a guy with good size who can fly and has good hands and can get in and out of his breaks. But you can’t limit your scope or become obsessed with stopwatch time. There’s no question the Bears need playmakers.
I have heard the offensive line is getting lighter and quicker for an outside-zone-style offense. That would seem to mean the QB getting the ball out faster. I’ve also heard about the Bears tailoring the offense to Justin Fields’ strengths. Would you say getting the ball out is a strength of his? If not, how is this offense then helping him? — @chicagohairbear
The Bears definitely want to get leaner and more athletic on the offensive line, and they hope Fields can get the ball out quicker. I would not call that a strength of his last season, but it’s something he should want to improve and it’s a good goal for the Bears. If they can design the system in a way he’s more comfortable doing that and it becomes more reactionary, that would be a plus for him and the offense as a whole.
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