Chicago Bears: 3 Most underrated players on the 2020 roster

Jimmy Graham is being overlooked outside of the Chicago Bears organization

It seems that the only people who are properly valuing the Chicago Bears tight end group is the Bears organization itself. Well, maybe Mike Clay got it right as he recently released his positional group rankings on ESPN. He has the Bears tight end group as the 16th best group in the NFL this season.

Whenever I write anything positive about Jimmy Graham, many Bears fans like to throw out that I am a Ryan Pace apologist. These same fans believe that Pace can do no wrong in my eyes. This is completely untrue as I have pointed out many mistakes Pace has made since coming into town. However, he has turned this team from a laughing stock into a team that can potentially win every game they play. Even with some mistakes along the way, the turnaround proves his worth.

Well, another move that everyone seems to hate by Pace was the signing of Jimmy Graham this offseason. Most wanted the team to overspend for Austin Hooper. I do not expect Hooper to find the same success in Cleveland as he had in Atlanta. The team still has David Njoku on the roster and Bakery Mayfield is not Matt Ryan.

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But Rob, Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles are not Aaron Rodgers. Obviously. However, strictly from a target standpoint, the difference between what Hooper will see in Cleveland versus the 97 targets he had from Ryan last season will be somewhat significant. Browns tight ends saw a combined 62 targets in 2019. Graham saw 60 from Rodgers in 2019. He should see at least that in 2020, but I expect that number to be closer to 80 while here in Chicago.

If we go back to the 2018 season, Trey Burton saw 76 targets. Graham, even at this point in his career, is a better tight end than Burton. Burton was able to score six touchdowns and gain 569 yards receiving. Matt Nagy’s offense will likely be more similar to the Eagles than the Chiefs. Even though all three have similarities, the Chiefs do not have a second receiving threat like the Eagles have in Dallas Goedert. Zach Ertz saw 135 targets last season, while Goedert still saw 87.

This is the offense that I envision to some degree for the Bears this year. The team should run plenty of 12-personnel with Graham and a combination of Demetrius Harris and Cole Kmet. If Graham sees nearly 100 targets, we should expect somewhere between his 2016 and 2017 seasons when he finished with an average of 720 yards and eight touchdowns. The importance of Graham and his position in this offense alone makes him underrated.