7. The Chicago Bears will have two 1,000-yard receivers in 2021
The last time the Bears had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers was back in 2013 when Brandon Marshall totaled 1,295 yards to go with Alshon Jeffery’s 1,421. Before that, it had been since 1995 when Jeff Graham and Curtis Conway made it happen.
It’s not that the Bears have had a lack of talent at wide receiver — well, in some cases it has. But, the Bears have rarely had a quarterback capable of allowing such a feat to take place. Now that the Bears are rolling with Fields, it should be a piece of cake for both Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney to hit the 1,000-yard mark.
Robinson has gone over 1,000 yards pretty easily over the past two seasons, even despite poor quarterback play. Last year, as a rookie, Mooney caught 61 of 98 targets for 631 yards. He didn’t really get integrated into the offense until Week 3 or 4.
If we upped his targets from an average of 6.1 per game to just under eight, then he’d come in right around 125 targets, which is doable for a legitimate WR2. Take his average of 10.3 yards per reception and move the needle a bit to where Robinson finished last year (12.3), and that’s maybe even under-shooting it for a guy with his big-play ability. Finally, if we say Mooney catches 68 percent of his targets versus 62 last year, then this would give him a line of 85 receptions for 1,045 yards.