Chicago Bears keep missing out on chances to improve

The Chicago Bears allowed Damon Harrison to sign with another team.

Earlier today, the Seattle Seahawks announced that they would sign defensive tackle Damon Harrison, aka “Snacks.” He was also interested in making a visit to the Chicago Bears but the team apparently didn’t have the same interest. This is yet another example of the Bears missing out on a chance to make a big improvement to the team.

This offseason, there were a number of quarterbacks available to push starter Mitchell Trubisky. Teddy Bridgewater, Marcus Mariota, Philip Rivers, Tom Brady and Cam Newton. Instead of going after them, the Bears picked Nick Foles.

Don’t get me wrong, Foles could be the perfect fit for head coach Matt Nagy’s offensive system but he had a horrible debut last week. We got a firsthand view of Rivers, playing on an improved offense. We’ll also see Brady, who’s having a terrific season. There are reports that the Bears were one of the three finalists on his list that also included the Los Angeles Chargers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, after seeing Rivers beat the Bears, we get to see how good Brady is this week. Additionally, Newton is having a resurgence with the New England Patriots after struggling with injuries in the last few years.

The Chicago Bears missed out on another potentially valuable move.

Now we see another missed opportunity. Damon “Snacks” Harrison who had yet to sign with a team, is coming back. He had several teams that he wanted to visit and the Chicago Bears were among them.

The Bears have a need at defensive tackle. Eddie Goldman opted out of the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 virus. They decided to go with Bilal Nichols to replace him. So far, it’s a mixed result.

The Bears ranked 9th in rushing yards allowed and 6th in average yards per run allowed. Those numbers are now 16th and 14th, respectively. In the first three weeks, each starting running back had his best rushing day of the year.

To be fair, the defense did play better against the run last week. Nichols is still learning the position so he should improve. However, missing Goldman hurts other players as well. Inside linebackers Danny Trevathan and Roquan Smith really leaned on Goldman against the run. Now we see that they are having some trouble without him.

Harrison could have settled the defensive line. He is a good run stuffer and plays a similar game to Goldman. Trevathan and Smith could depend on him instead of helping Nichols learn.

Even other Bears players campaigned for Harrison. Cordarrelle Patterson took to Twitter to try to bring Harrison to Chicago. Harrison expressed interest, but he never made a visit. His first visit was to Seattle and had other visits scheduled. He canceled the other visits and signed with the Seahawks.

The Bears had a great start to the season. At 3-1, they have a great chance of making the playoffs. There are holes in this team, however, both offensively and defensively. The front office has the duty to do its best to improve the roster. So far, that hasn’t happened and it could ultimately cost general manager Ryan Pace his job.