The Chicago Bears’ bye week comes at a nice time in that it is essentially the halfway point in the season. With nine games down the team has eight more to go we can look back at the bye week and see how the changes affected the team with an even sample size on both sides.
With that in mind, we can use the first half stats to project how the Chicago Bears star players could look statistically over the next eight weeks. Then, we can look back at this article, and see if each player had a better or worse second half than projected.
Justin Fields Final Stats Projection
For Justin Fields projections, we leaned a bit more towards his last five games than his first couple of games. It is fair to assume that he will continue to improve throughout the year, and that has already shown. With that in mind, when leaning on his last five games, he could finish the season with 389 attempts, and 234 completions, about a 60% completion rate.
If he continues at that pace, he would be in line for about 2,892 yards. Over the past four games, he has had a 2.9% touchdown rate. When you take away the Bucs game, which is an outlier, he has a 3.1% interception rate.
At those rates, he is on pace for 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Lastly, his past four games have really started to show his rushing progression. If the Bears keep him at his recent pace, he could very easily get to 650 rushing yards. Only Lamar Jackson, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin, and Josh Allen put up that many rushing yards in their rookie season. It does not seem like it, but he is still on a nice pace to put together a great rookie season from a rushing perspective.
234-389, 2,892 yards 11 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 650 rushing yards.
David Montgomery Final Stat Projection
David Montgomery missed a few games, which may cause him to miss back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. However, at his current pace, if he stays healthy he is going to compete to hit it. At his current pace, he could finish at 967 yards on 213 attempts. If he can find a way to get a few more carries or be more efficient, he would need just about 4 yards per game more than he is currently averaging to hit 1,000 yards.
213 attempts, 967 yards
Darnell Mooney Final Stat Projection
Before the season we wrote that somewhere between 60-70 catches and 700-900 yards would be a realistic projection for Darnell Mooney. Where he currently stands he is on pace for 68 catches and 850 yards. It is fair to say that amid all of the madness in the offense that it has not stunted the growth of Mooney, and he is right where he should be.
68 catches, 850 yards
Allen Robinson Final Stat Projections
We all know that Robinson is on pace to have one of his worst years in the NFL. Currently, he is trending at 57 catches for 641 yards. In his first season with Chicago, he did not set the world on fire but hit 754 yards, and that was playing just 13 games. Hitting 641 yards in 17 games would really hurt his value.
57 catches for 641 yards
Cole Kmet Final Stat Projections
For Cole Kmet, we are going to lean to the more recent games as well. Kmet has shown more growth in the past month, and while Robinson and Mooney have gone up and down throughout the year, there is a clear sign that he is trending one way. Beyond that, he could be set for another post-bye week bump.
At the rate of his past five games combined with the start of his year, Kmet could realistically finish with 62 catches for 644 yards. Before the season we were expecting around 40 catches for 500 yards, so 12 more catches for 144 yards would be great. Kmet just has to keep up the pace that he has been at recently.