How will the Chicago Bears wide receivers look against the New York Giants ?
Last week, we saw the Detroit Lions being a good matchup for the Chicago Bears wide receivers, and that was before Desmond Trufant and Justin Coleman left the game with injuries, and Jeff Okudah was deemed out before the game as well. How do they matchup with the New York Giants?
On Monday Night Football, we saw our first glimpse of the new look Giants under Joe Judge. The Steelers moved their receivers around a decent amount, but the Giants did not follow anyone, and played sides. James Bradberry played the left side, Corey Ballentine on the right, and rookie Darnay Holmes manned the slot.
It is worth noting that the Giants also had a three safety look for 38 snaps, which featured Logan Ryan as a hybrid slot safety. They also played Isaac Yiadom five snaps in relief of Ballentine.
Allen Robinson
What is great about Robinson is that you can move him in every spot on offense, and the Chicago Bears did. According to PFF, the Bears lined Robinson in the slot for 31% of his snaps, on the right side for 25% and on the right side for 42%. They moved him everywhere.
The Chicago Bears could look at how JuJu Smith-Schuster fared in the slot, and follow that success. Smith-Schuster ran 83% of his routes in there, and finished with two touchdowns. It was clear when Bradberry moved into the slot to follow Smith-Schuster he was uncomfortable, and it resulted in an easy touchdown.
Bradberry is a physical cornerback, who can use his size, and violence to re-route receivers. He is ball aware as well, knows how to position himself, which warranted a pay day in free agency. However, he sticks to his side, and relies on the sideline to his advantage. Robinson should be able to test Bradberry with in-breaking routes.
Diontae Johnson caught three passes for 39 yards against Ballentine, and created a lot of separation with comeback routes, and crossers. This again is where Robinson can make his money. Ballentine is the only cornerback who was on the field when the Chicago Bears played the Giants last season. Robinson caught four passes for 107 yards.
Anthony Miller
Miller could also follow in the path of Johnson and beat Ballentine with quick breaks and precise routes. However, Miller did not even play a full game as the wide receiver two last week, and ran 91% of his routes out of the slot.
Still, that means a matchup with rookie Darnay Holmes, who allowed three catches for 40 yards to Smith-Schuster, and five catches for 56 yards in his debut.
On the surface, Holmes is a quick footed, and shifty receiver, so he could stylistically matchup better, where Smith-Schuster is a big slot mismatch. Still, similar to the Detroit Lions game, the Bears need to get Miller on Holmes one-on-one and let Trubisky test the rookie at least once down the field.
Ted Ginn
The split in snaps at receiver shows that Ginn may be a placeholder until Darnell Mooney is ready to jump him. Mooneys start may show that happening sooner than later. In total, Ginn ran 16 routes and Mooney ran 12. Will that number get even closer this week?
What the Bears also could do is use Ginn as the decoy receiver. Lining Ginn up on Bradberry’s side, and making Bradberry run gassers all day will put Robinson on Ballentine and Holmes all day.
Darnell Mooney
Mooney could also get a chance to see true NFL talent across from Bradberry. It is a bad matchup, but a learning experience and again opens up the other cornerbacks for Robinson. It is worth noting that Mooney ran less routes, but saw more targets and catches than Ginn, though.
Javon Wims
Wims has to be mentioned as well because he ran more routes than Mooney. However, he typically will be used as a red zone option. Still, the Steelers were able to get Yiadom on the field as a fourth cornerback and were able to beat him in the red zone. Wims could do that this week.