Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy talked about “progress” after the team’s defeat to the Green Bay Packers in Week 6 — but how much have the Bears made with rookie quarterback Justin Fields? Brad Biggs addresses that and much more in his weekly Bears mailbag.
Matt Nagy spoke a lot about “progress” in his Monday news conference. Were his words directed toward George McCaskey? — @mmesq11
That is an interesting question and I will say that Nagy didn’t lean on the word “progress” nearly as much as I heard new Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins use the word “process” when he was introduced Monday. But that’s neither here nor there.
I don’t think Nagy would try to make a case to McCaskey about the work he’s done with quarterback Justin Fields coming off a game the Bears lost by 10 points because the offense could produce only two touchdowns. That doesn’t make any sense. I believe Nagy was genuinely trying to express how they have seen Fields make some improvement on a pretty quick basis through four starts. Has that improvement manifested in the offense really opening up? No, and that remains a problem. Nagy knows that ultimately progress is going to be defined by how the team is playing at the end of the season. If it’s still a slog and they’re still averaging less than 17 points per game, I would imagine Nagy will be in a tenuous position.
It still is early enough in the season to say the Bears remain in the beginning stages with Fields. They need to be more productive, more explosive and they need to start scoring more points. Trying to build a case for your future off a Week 6 loss to the rival Green Bay Packers doesn’t add up and I don’t believe Nagy had that in mind. I bet he would tell you he doesn’t have time right now to ponder the future. He’s too busy with his staff focusing on the next opponent, which only gets more difficult this week with a trip to Tampa Bay. Nagy is direct and will have communication with McCaskey when the time is right. I think he was simply expressing some areas where they have seen improvement from Fields, improvement that isn’t easy to show simply through statistics.
Is there any hope of getting one of the two rookie offensive tackles back this year? — @caljestice
Larry Borom has spent the minimum three weeks on injured reserve with a high ankle sprain so the practice window for him to return can be activated at any time. Who knows? Maybe the Bears make that move on Wednesday. There have been a lot of questions about Borom and why he hasn’t been back in action yet and I’d remind folks that high ankle sprains can sometimes sideline players five or six weeks.
As far as Teven Jenkins is concerned, he could be activated from the physically unable to perform list at any time because he has spent the minimum six weeks with that designation. I would imagine the Bears want to be cautious with Jenkins considering he had back surgery. Chris Williams underwent back surgery as a rookie in 2008 during training camp and he returned before the end of the season, but was relegated primarily to special teams on field goals and extra points. Williams’ surgery was earlier in training camp. I’ve got no idea what a timeline for Jenkins would look like. He basically hasn’t done anything as the back started bothering him in the spring so I’d be surprised if he was anywhere near a return.
Elijah Wilkinson looked to set up deep on passing plays, causing a tight blocker for Justin Fields. What are your thoughts on his play since he took over for Germain Ifedi? — @babydocdave
Wilkinson is on a one-year contract for the veteran minimum and Jason Peters isn’t making a lot more at the other tackle position with another one-year deal that has a maximum value of $1.75 million. When you’ve got less than $3 million into your starting offensive tackles, you’re going to be limited offensively. The old saying that you get what you pay for rings true when it comes to paying offensive linemen.
That said, Peters has been powerful as a run blocker and I think Wilkinson has held up OK. I had scouts tell me in preseason they thought Wilkinson was a slightly below average starting right tackle. They didn’t like the idea of him playing on the left side, though, which is where the Bears had to move him until Peters was signed off the street or away from the fishing hole. The Bears have been running the ball well and what they really need to do is expand the play-action passing game off that.
Is there any chance Sam Mustipher gets benched? Is it possible the Bears get Larry Borom and Germain Ifedi back, move James Daniels to center, Ifedi to right guard and have Borom at right tackle? — @thegeorgetwo
I think that’s a poor idea. They aren’t great on the offensive line — and won’t be great this season — but they have rushed for 471 yards and five touchdowns in the last three weeks. That’s a credit to the line as much or more than it is to the backs. So, credit goes to offensive line coach Juan Castillo and the work he’s done with the group.
Mustipher wasn’t as good at the start of the season as he was at the end of last year but I thought he played really well at Las Vegas and the holding call he had against Green Bay was borderline. He knows he can clean up his technique there and avoid that call.
Moving James Daniels is definitely a bad idea. Right guard is his third position and he’s never going to reach his peak — whatever that is — if he can’t settle in at one spot and stay there. He definitely was still finding his way at right guard in the first month of the season and I think his best football could still be ahead of him. He’s been better the last few weeks too.
I don’t know when Larry Borom will be activated to return from injured reserve with his high ankle sprain. I think it’s important to note Borom has missed a ton of practice time. Remember, he was out about two weeks in training camp with a concussion and he’s missed most of the regular season. He needs to be able to get back into a regular practice routine before the Bears think about getting him back on the field. I like the idea of him getting some playing time later in the season, but I think that is a way off. To me, they’re best off keeping what continuity they have and trying to build off it with some tough defensive fronts coming up the next four weeks: Tampa Bay, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
Why would the Bears bring in running backs for a tryout? Is David Montgomery out for more time ? Or is Damien Williams out this week too? — @capitalsrshl
The Bears are without their top two running backs until further notice. Montgomery will be on injured reserve for at least one more game and quite possibly more. Williams’ status on the reserve/COVID-19 list remains unchanged, Matt Nagy said Monday. With only Artavis Pierce and Ryan Nall behind Khalil Herbert, it makes sense to — at minimum — get an updated free-agent list in case something else happens. The Bears took a look at three veterans in Duke Johnson, Chris Thompson and T.J. Logan and also brought in C.J. Marable, who was with the team during training camp and preseason as an undrafted rookie free agent.
Think Justin Fields now knows that guys wearing numbers in the 50s and 90s on Sundays are faster than many of the guys wearing numbers in the 20s on Saturdays? — Terry M., Hawthorn Woods, Ill.
I don’t know that there are many NFL defensive linemen that are faster than Big Ten defensive backs but there certainly are some that have elite quickness and can really move off the edge. There’s no question Fields is seeing more speed in the regular season than he encountered in preseason. He’s also able to challenge defenses with his athletic ability. I think with a little more experience, he likely will take fewer sacks, something Matt Nagy talked about Monday.
“For every quarterback, there’s always a couple when you look at them, you say, ‘OK, hey, without trying to make a crazy good play, you get rid of the football,'” Nagy said. “The one that he would tell you probably that he wants back — now, there’s different reasons for some of the sacks. The one that I think is a little bit more common of the throwaway, just the easy throwaway, was the one where he took the sack earlier in the game. He rolled to the left, kind of sprinted out, he was waiting to see something happen and it wasn’t there instead of just dumping it out and saving a sack.
“At the same point in time, we just want to be careful because … shoot, you could’ve said that on his scramble at the end of the game where he ran for 20. Throw it away — the guy’s grabbing the back of his jersey. Throw it away. No, he beat that and he ran for (16 yards). So, there’s a fine line and we trust Justin in his decision making.
“And then at the same point in time, at the end of half and end of game when we’re getting close to field-goal range, that’s where you want to understand, OK, here’s where we’re at in the field. These plays here, if you take a sack, not good. If you take a sack in these situations here, it can be a critical error. Those are the ones we want to learn from. And he’s so football smart he gets it. He understands it. Now we just learn from it moving forward.”
Fields has been sacked 18 times, tying him with Zach Wilson, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold for the second-most in the league behind only Ryan Tannehill (20). The problem is those other quarterbacks have attempted nearly twice as many passes as Fields (99). Fields has also lost the most yardage on sacks — 163, which comes out to 9.06 yards each.
Why did the Bears let Green Bay wear home uniforms at Soldier Field? It’s their house and they should be wearing traditional home uniforms. I don’t care about marketing gimmicks. — Fred B., Parts Unknown
You may not care for “marketing gimmicks,” but the throwback jerseys the Bears wore on Sunday are popular with many fans. Personally, I think they look a lot better than some of the other alternate uniforms the Bears have worn over the last decade or so and I’m for anything other than the hideous orange jerseys. The biggest problem I have with the orange jerseys is that from a distance it is more difficult to read the numbers. If the Bears are going to wear white at home, they’ve got to allow their opponent to wear a dark jersey and thus the Packers were in their traditional green. According to the team’s website, the Bears will be in navy for their remaining home games with the exception of the Dec. 5 game against the Arizona Cardinals when they’ll go with the aforementioned orange outfits (cover your eyes). They will wear the throwback uniforms for a second time in Week 15 on Dec. 20 against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field. That will be just in time to tempt you to plunk down some hard-earned coin for your own throwback jersey before the holidays.
With David Montgomery’s improvement this season and Khalil Herbert’s good productivity, do you think this will be the end of Tarik Cohen’s time with the Bears? — @zakwho
Herbert’s emergence the last two weeks with Montgomery on injured reserve has been a nice discovery for the Bears and proof that running back is an easily replaceable position for offenses. A huge investment isn’t needed at the position and often times teams that sink big money into running backs eventually regret the decision. In this instance, I don’t think Montgomery and Herbert are necessarily attached to a decision on Cohen in the future.
Cohen isn’t a true running back in the sense you can’t use him often running between the tackles, at least if you’re looking for a profit. He’s more of a gadget or matchup player on offense when he is healthy. The trade for returner Jakeem Grant was a big signal that Cohen will not be available until late this season if at all.
Cohen has a base salary of $3.9 million with a $100,000 workout bonus next season and he will have to be healthy for the Bears to even consider paying him anything close to that. If he’s healthy, the organization will have to deem what kind of fit he can be because that is a lot of money for a role player.
People complain about traffic going to Soldier Field but won’t the drive to Arlington Heights be worse? Many people walk and take the various trains to Soldier Field and when they move to Arlington Heights, everyone will drive. So traffic going there will be much worse. — @jojopuppyfish
Perhaps you are not aware there are two Metra stops in Arlington Heights with one at Arlington Park. So the train will be an option if the Bears get a stadium there. I would imagine there would have to be significant infrastructure expansion in the area if a stadium is built but I’m not a civil engineer, so I’m not going to pretend to know how large the scope of that project would be. Certainly, the commute for season-ticket holders in the northwest suburbs will be reduced. I would also point out that you pretty much find a traffic jam in and around every stadium in the NFL on game day. That’s what happens when you have more than 60,000 people headed to the same venue.
Sign up for alerts on your phone, desktop and inbox to stay current with the latest news
Sign up for our sports newsletter, delivered daily each morning
