3 surprises through Chicago Bears first quarter of games

1. Damiere Byrd out snapping Jimmy Graham

This one is dumbfounding in a lot of ways. Sure, Darnell Mooney was heading into year two, and many wanted a breakout. As noted, you could say that Quinn was due to bounce back from his disaster in 2020. However, through four weeks, Byrd is not only outplaying Jimmy Graham; the difference is 113 to 65. That is 48% of the offensive snaps compared to 27%. Nobody saw Byrd getting 20% more snaps than Graham.

That is mainly due to salary. The Bears could have cut Graham and saved significant cap space. They kept him off the idea that they wanted a second tight end. Byrd is making low-end dollars to be an end-of-the-pro roster player. His job and paycheck were not secured this summer.

The Bears played their most 12 personnel in week four, but that took far too long, and Graham out snapping Byrd cut into a deficit that was more significant than 20% through three weeks. While Quinn and Mooney may keep this up, you should expect to see these numbers flip moving forward.