It’s already Week 8! Here’s the corresponding edition of our Bears Mailbag. Following the Chicago Bears’ defensive destruction of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the Bears take on the New Orleans Saints on the road this coming weekend. And because we’re keeping track, rookie quarterback Mitch Trubisky is 2-1 as Bears starter!
Thanks to all those who submitted questions!
I believe the defense really is as good as its been playing. It all starts up front, and the Bears have one of the top defensive lines in the league. Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, and Leonard Floyd, when all is working, are borderline unblockable. Factor in a healthier Pernell McPhee and contributions from Mitch Unrein and Jonathan Bullard, and it adds up to a dominant unit. But the real difference is the secondary has finally taken the next step and has started to pull its weight, including (finally) forcing turnovers. Credit to Ryan Pace for using a ton of resources to improve that group, and it has paid off. Kyle Fuller is back to being a shutdown force. Eddie Jackson is showing his ballhawk qualities that made him a first round talent. Adrian Amos is playing like a man possessed in relief of Quintin Demps. It’s been fun to watch.
The reality is the defense has played well all season long. But the takeaways have been a sight for long suffering eyes. Their beatdown of the Baltimore Ravens was a trigger point against a bad offense. Their domination of Cam Newton and the Panthers? That’s a statement. Health permitting, expect the defense to continue its great play.
This is a great question. There are a bunch of things that go into developing a quarterback, especially one that had a grand total of just 13 starts in college (Trubisky). To me, learning to adjust to the speed of the game and reading defenses / recognizing coverages are great places to start. They get a taste of that during training camp and the preseason, but there’s nothing quite like getting that experience in real game action. Throwing passes to understand and test NFL throwing windows is important, but recognizing coverages precedes any throws. So does going through progressions.
For someone like Trubisky, he’s been getting a taste of reading defenses and coverages, while at the same time benefiting from not having to win games by himself. This experience will help him going forward, when the Bears do need him to win games on his own. In the meantime, winning by any means necessary is great. Winning ultimately cures all.
I think they will have to. The Saints don’t have a great run defense, so early on you can absolutely bet that the Bears will stick to their gameplan from the last two games of boring defenses to death by running the ball non-stop (thanks, John Fox). But while Chicago’s defense has been terrific all year, playing in the Superdome against that high-octane offense is a different animal. I expect that the Saints will score their points, and the Bears will likely need to play catch up. At that point, expect the playbook to open up.
Ideally, I’d love to see the Bears to mix it up and show some creativity early on. But that’s unlikely to happen as long as Fox runs the show. More on that at the end of this Mailbag.
The Bears have a chance to be 4-4 with a win on Sunday, heading into the bye. Nobody on Earth expected that before the year started. Chicago is currently one game out of the second wild card spot! And if they win on Sunday, they will be no worse than one game out of the second wild card spot during their bye week.
With that said, if that’s the case, I would be stunned if Chicago didn’t at least explore the trade market for a receiver. They need help more than ever at the position, and can’t expect to win consistently going forward without an upgrade. And there’s no reason they should ignore this opportunity if they do end up at 4-4. Before the Panthers game, I didn’t think this would be an option. Amazing how much things can potentially change in two weeks in the NFL.
UPDATE: Help came a bit early! On Wednesday, the Bears traded a conditional seventh-round pick for former Chargers WR Dontrelle Inman. Inman has size, speed, and reliable hands. He was just buried on the depth chart in Los Angeles, but performed at a high level last season. This is a potential steal for the Bears, giving them much needed help at the receiver position. I’d assume he automatically becomes Chicago’s #1 receiver.
I would trust Finley’s word on this. He covers the team daily as a beat writer and would have better information about this than I would.
That said, my personal belief would still be that there is no rift. Overall, for better or for worse, John Fox runs this team. Yes, Dowell Loggains and Fox’s philosophies may differ — Fox is an old-school conservative guy who wants to run the ball all day. Loggains likes to air it out. But game plans are heavily influenced by Fox. That’s just the reality of the situation. And Fox’s desire to take the ball out of Trubisky’s hands is more of a distrust (for better or for worse) of Trubisky, since he’s a rookie. It’s not an indictment of Loggains.
But you can bet that the Bears will need to lean on Trubisky to win them games at some point this season. That’s when Loggains will get a chance to display his creativity. He showed it quite a bit last year, getting big performances from Jay Cutler, Brian Hoyer, and Matt Barkley. There’s no way he can’t get the same out of Trubisky.
This is a burning question heading into the offseason. I can promise you that Bears fans, in general, would prefer Chicago to move on from Fox. That includes me. Yes, the Bears are 3-4 and still very much alive in the playoff race. But this team still shows alarming trends that have dogged Fox teams for years. They are, often times, undisciplined and make stupid mistakes at the worst possible times. That’s been an issue his whole tenure in Chicago. Let’s not forget that two weeks ago, the Bears did their best to give the Ravens game away.
Then there’s the issue of Fox not knowing what he’s doing with rookie quarterbacks. He has never successfully developed one, and so far has not shown any indication that he will do right by Trubisky. And at the end of the day, Ryan Pace’s job is forever tied to Trubisky. If he pans out, Pace is a hero. If he doesn’t, Pace is gone. It’s as simple as that.
And I don’t think Pace trusts Fox to get Trubisky where he needs to be. If the Bears finish .500 or better, or (gulp), make the playoffs, it’s going to be impossibly difficult to justify getting rid of Fox. But the future of this team will be dictated by Trubisky’s growth. My bet is that Pace is already working on a short list of offensively-minded head coaches that can help Trubisky achieve stardom.
