Chicago Bears players will be asked about the upcoming quarterback competition almost incessantly for the next two months. It will be the focus of both the local and national media for obvious reasons. Mitch Trubisky or Nick Foles? Offensive players especially will get lots of leading questions, all in an attempt to get that one answer everybody seeks. Who do they personally hope wins the race? Knowing the culture this team has, there’s no chance anybody will speak openly about it. However, it is possible to gauge which ones might have a greater stake in it than others. After some careful digging, the answer is clear. That is tight ends Jimmy Graham and Cole Kmet.
They are the new arrivals on the team. The guys brought in to stabilize and hopefully improve the single worst tight end group in professional football last season. Of course, the way they’ll need to do that is if they get proper action in the passing game. Which wheels back around to the original question. Who would they want under center? Trubisky or Foles?
Thanks to the excellent Sharp Football Stats website, I was able to collect some data on both QBs regarding which position groups they targeted the most or least in the passing games. Here are the results.
Between 2018 and 2019, Trubisky targeted Bears tight ends on just 14.09% of his passing plays. A total of 140 out of 993 attempts. By contrast, Foles threw 543 passes in games he started and finished since 2017. No fewer than 149 went to the tight ends. Good for 27.44%. Pretty striking difference. Foles has devoted 13.35% more of his passes to tight ends. He threw nine more to that position group than Trubisky despite throwing 450 fewer total passes.
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So yeah, Graham and Kmet may like Mitch but they’d be well-served to quietly cheer for Foles.
Jimmy Graham and Cole Kmet doing well would help everybody
The thing to always remember is it’s a two-way street. Having tight ends on the roster doesn’t mean they can throw the ball to themselves. Getting them more involved in the passing game requires a quarterback who makes an active effort to look their way. That is too often an issue with Trubisky. By contrast, Foles has traditionally loved to work the middle of the field with them, which in turn opens up opportunities for big plays down the field for his wide receivers.
Imagine how much more dangerous Allen Robinson would’ve been in 2019 if he’d gotten literally any help at all from tight ends.
That is what the Bears are aiming for. It’s why head coach Mat Nagy insisted on overhauling that position. Graham and Kmet have a clear task. Force defenses to not ignore them. When that happens, everybody else will benefit. To do that though, they’ll need somebody willing to get them the ball.