I took a few days off to go to Michigan with friends and family. We made our way to a friend’s lake house and spent a couple of days boating, tubing, hot tubbing and just enjoying good company. I spent three days without actually charging my phone — left it in the room for 90% of each day. It was a fun and enjoyable time, but now I come back and hear about the Chicago Bears struggling at the wide receiver position due to multiple injuries. The question is, did the Bears make a mistake at the wide receiver position?
Before I give my opinion on that question. I have to point out that I also spent a day at training camp last week — prior to the injuries. The Chicago Bears held a very physical practice. I missed some of it because my boys (10 and 8) wanted to enter a raffle to try and meet some players — we were one number away from winning! Ugh!
A few observations I saw were how detailed this coaching staff can be. I posted a video of Matt Eberflus watching the linebacker group. Noah Dawkins made a mistake during the drill and linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi went to coach him up. Instead, Eberflus pulled him aside and did the coaching. You could tell how detailed this staff wants to be. We hear Eberflus and players talk about always getting one percent better each day and this is how it is done.
Highlights I saw from 11-on-11s were Justin Fields hitting his receivers left and right. He lit up the scout team (I know it was backups) a few times, but he also had a couple of misses on some deep balls. Braxton Jones has been holding his own as the starting left tackle and the offensive line that I saw with the starters (from left to right) was Jones, Cody Whitehair, Sam Mustipher/Doug Kramer, Michael Schofield and Riley Reiff. However, Luke Getsy said the line is not set.
Did the Chicago Bears make a mistake at the wide receiver position?
Alright, now to answer the question. Let me preface this with the fact that I was planning on writing this article before the injuries took place over the weekend. Now, we have two areas of concern with this team.
First, the Chicago Bears chose to basically ignore the wide receiver position early on in free agency. Byron Pringle was the biggest signing at the position. Now, his availability is in question for Week 1. Velus Jones, Jr. seems to be a solid draft pick despite his age, but we won’t know for sure until he’s on the field during games.
The rest of the additions by Ryan Poles were guys like Equanimeous St. Brown who hasn’t accomplished anything in Green Bay. Dante Pettis and Tajae Sharpe both have shown flashes, but have been highly inconsistent in their careers. Hindsight is always 20/20, and everyone was hopeful that Ryan Poles and the Chicago Bears would add a stud at wide receiver in 2023 with all of their salary cap space. The future is looking bleak.