This decision speaks to Matt Nagy’s inconsistencies

Many fans have brought up the questionable decision to keep Jimmy Graham on the roster. The excuse was that Graham is a chess piece on the offense, and his value schematically is warranted to stash him on the roster. The argument is that Matt Nagy needs an offense that can rely on two tight ends with different skill sets.

This has been something that Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace have looked into for years. Pace drafted Adam Shaheen and they signed Trey Burton with hopes that the two could work together. They did the same with Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham. They even have added third tight ends such as Dion Sims, Demetrius Harris, and Jesse James to ensure they can get their multiple tight ends on the field. This is a must-have for the Matt Nagy offense.

That is if they ever unveil it.

Matt Nagy still doesn’t use his tight ends

Matt Nagy is supposed to be the king of two-tight end sets, and when you consider the resources invested, he better be. However, last season the Bears ran two-tight end sets just 19% of the time. That ranked 17th in the NFL.

The excuse was that Nagy had a rookie in Cole Kmet, and it is true that as the season went on, Kmet and Graham spent more time on the field together. After the Bears bye week, the team moved to 24% 12-personnel or two tight ends.

To get into the top five of usage, the Bears would likely need to trend closer to 29%, which was expected to happen this season considering they kept Graham over many other names and have Kmet in year two.

On the complete contrary, they ran fewer two tight end sets than a year before, giving that look just 17% of the time.

Matt Nagy will likely tell you that the score and the game got away from them, and they could not go that heavy in passing or comeback mode.

Chicago Bears should pass out of 12-personnel

However, teams can throw out of 12-personnel and often have more success because the added tight ends get slower defenders on the field.

This is shown by the Bears ranked 25th in the passes out of 12 personnel last week. Twenty-four teams were getting two tight ends on the field and then throwing the ball more than Chicago.

This is supposed to be their bread and butter, but they rank towards last in the NFL. If Matt Nagy needs a second tight end, he can trust because the Bears run the most 12 in the NFL; that is one thing. They have a huge problem when you pay Graham but ask Damiere Byrd to block Jalen Ramsey, and Byrd plays much more than Graham.

Does Matt Nagy want these tight ends or not? If so, it is time to use them.