Chicago Bears: 9 Observations heading into the toughest stretch of the schedule

The Chicago Bears and the tight position

5. Bears need to lineup a tight end next to their left tackle

Poor David Montgomery. He gets more yards on his own than his offensive line creates for him. The Bears offense will never get out of its ugly duckling stage unless they make their run game respectable. The Chicago Bears’ entire offense, as well as their run game, does not have to be great for them to be a serious playoff team. However, if they can fix their run game, their passing game could become special.

All of this is of course dependent on the offensive line not being the sieve it has been the last two games. Charles Leno Jr. should be replaced by Jason Spriggs. When reviewing any Bears game, watching Leno block is just a nightmare. In my opinion, it is hypocritical of Nagy to bench Mitch Trubisky but not Leno. A case can be made that Leno has done a poorer job than Trubisky did before Trubisky lost his job.

Given that the team appears to be stuck with Leno for now there is a possible fix to improve their run blocking and pass protection on the left side without replacing Leno. That fix is to regularly line up Cole Kmet on the left side next to Leno. This sets up Kmet to both help their pass protection as well as be a sneaky pass target at times.

Kmet, by far, is the Bears’ best tight end who can both block and catch the ball. Demetrius Harris made it clear he is not this guy when against the Panthers he dropped three passes. Two of them were critical to keeping drives alive. Nagy needs to step out of his self-inflicted straight jacket by making some common-sense changes to get the ugly out of his offense.

6. Cole Kmet caught his first touchdown in an unexpected fashion

Before the Panthers game, there was a lot made about how Cole Kmet had only caught one pass and needs to be fed the ball more. Well in an ironic fashion, he did catch his first touchdown pass as a pro in this game. The irony is that it was a total adlib by Foles and Kmet.

Cole was not the intended target and the route was an adlib by Kmet in the limited space of the end zone. As the play quickly unfolded at the goal line, Foles said to himself “fuggedaboutit” Kmet is getting the ball. Kmet also caught another 12-yard pass giving him three catches in six games.

More tight-end irony is that the Chicago Bears best red-zone target this season, Jimmy Graham, was not included in this play. Nagy got too tricky and Foles bailed him out. The Bears 2020 offense can at times be the very definition of convoluted.