Chicago Bears: Questions still swirl over how the 2018 offense will look

Despite the 2018 regular season quickly approaching, there are still a ton of ‘unknowns’ on the Chicago Bears and Matt Nagy’s offense.

The Chicago Bears offense under Matt Nagy is still a bit of a mystery heading into the all-important “dress rehearsal” preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs. All teams at this stage of the preseason are keeping things close to the vest, deciding to instead call very vanilla plays and wait until the regular season to run the more creative play designs.

The Bears have not had their full allotment of playmakers on the field either. Tarik Cohen has been healthy yet kept under wraps, while Jordan Howard and Allen Robinson just made their preseason debuts last week against the Denver Broncos. Howard had a solid showing (nine carries, 32 yards) while Robinson played just two series and failed to haul in a pass.

Robinson is still trying to make his way back from his torn ACL, and in all honesty, none of us have any idea of how he’ll look. Will he knock the rust off quick and become the Bears unquestioned No. 1 wide receiver, or will he need several weeks before he truly hits the ground running?

Fellow wide receiver Taylor Gabriel has missed a big chunk of training camp with a foot injury and hasn’t played a snap in the preseason. As a result, Kevin White and Anthony Miller have been running with the starters. Once Gabriel returns, however, two questions will come up — one, how does he look and fit into the offense; and two, what are the exact roles of White and Miller?

Another question that has popped up recently is at tight end. Trey Burton is entrenched as the starter, but with Adam Shaheen’s injury, who is the No. 2 tight end? Do the Bears opt to play the blocking-tight end Dion Sims more, or will Daniel Brown and/or Ben Braunecker see the field more?

There are questions on the offensive line as well. Does Cody Whitehair stick at center, and if so, who starts at left guard? If Whitehair slides over to guard, is rookie James Daniels ready to start at center and make the line calls? Kyle Long’s health has been an issue in recent years, and tackles Charles Leno and Bobby Massie have had their fair shares of ups and downs as well.

We can rattle-off all of these questions and still not have mentioned the biggest factor on offense—Mitchell Trubisky. Does the quarterback make a significant jump in his second season, or does he struggle in the new offense? My money is on the former, but it’s important to remember that he’s still only made 12 starts in his NFL career and already is on his second head coach and playbook. Trubisky is going to be fine, but he might have to go through some growing pains early.

So, when all is said and done, the 2018 version of the Chicago Bears offense still has a ton of unanswered questions. Some could be answered this week against the Kansas City Chiefs, but several others will carry into the start of the regular season. I guess one thing is certain: it’s going to be a fun — and interesting — 2018 season!