NFL 2022: The biggest weakness of each NFC North team
By Lucas Schuh
Chicago Bears top weakness: Everything on offense, besides Justin Fields
In last year’s draft, the Bears made a big move for their future when they drafted Justin Fields out of Ohio State in the 1st round.
Fields was a great college QB and was a great pick by Chicago. While Fields was a great pick, he didn’t have a great rookie season. While Fields did struggle somewhat, it wasn’t his fault completely.
Fields didn’t have the greatest help in the world around him in terms of weapons, and his former head coach Matt Nagy wasn’t the greatest head coach in the world either.
This many people were expecting the Bears to make a decent amount of moves. The most unsurprising move the Bears made was letting go of Matt Nagy.
Nagy wasn’t the man for the job, and the Bears replaced him with former Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. Eberflus isn’t an offensive-minded coach, but still could be better than Nagy.
Another big coaching move by the Bears was hiring the Packers’ former QB coach and passing game coordinator, Luke Getsy. While the Bears made some quality moves in terms of coaching, their moves in terms of players were much more concerning.
Looking first at the weapons the Bears have given to Justin Fields. The weapons on the Bears roster, in a word, are bad. The current Bears starting receivers would be Darnell Mooney, Equanimeous St Brown, and Byron Pringle in the slot.
Now, I am a fan of Mooney, but those starting receivers are bad, probably a bottom three-receiver group in the NFL. Even the backup receivers don’t offer a lot with Tajae Sharp, Dante Pettis, and rookie Velus Jones.
Even the tight end group doesn’t offer a lot to work with, as the current Bears’ tight ends are Cole Kmet, Ryan Griffin, and James O’Shaughnessy among other tight ends.
The offensive line for the Bears isn’t much better either. As it stands right now, the starting offensive line for Chicago would likely be Larry Borom, Cody Whitehair, Lucas Patrick, Sam Mustiphar, and Teven Jenkins.
The Bears do have Whitehair who has had some flashes, and Jenkins who is young and has potential, but this is still a very weak offensive line.
The Bears have some decent running backs in David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert, but like most running backs, they aren’t needle movers.
In terms of a QB, Justin Fields is a talented player who has plenty of potential, but I don’t see Fields having a good season next year. He was no weapons helping him at receiver or tight end, and he has a poor offensive line blocking for him.
Chicago has done a poor job building around Fields so far, and I hope for his sake, they get him some weapons.