Did the Chicago Bears make a mistake regarding wide receiver in 2022?
The Chicago Bears should have added more proven talent to the WR group
The one free agent I was pounding the table for and who was good enough to receive a contract from the Kansas City Chiefs was JuJu Smith-Schuster. Smith-Schuster took a one-year deal from the Chiefs for less guaranteed money than Byron Pringle received. Smith-Schuster has proven he can be a top target in an offense and it would be nice to see him wearing blue and orange.
There’s no guarantee he’d have come to Chicago (especially over the Chiefs), but when you hear how well he’s doing and you see struggles at the position here in Chicago, it’s hard to overlook not attempting to sign him.
Speaking of Smith-Schuster — Marquez Valdes-Scantling looked like he could be the go-to WR in OTAs, but at training camp, through my looks, it's been Smith-Schuster. I'm now tending to think he'll be the second-most targeted Chiefs pass-catcher behind TE Travis Kelce in 2022.
— Pete Sweeney (@pgsween) August 7, 2022
The other move, when looking back at things, that I wish Ryan Poles would have made was the trade for Amari Cooper. Cooper was traded to the Browns for a fifth-round pick and basically a salary dump. That’s it. Would you rather have Amari Cooper or one of Braxton Jones or Dominque Robinson? One of Jones or Robinson, the two fifth-round picks of the Chicago Bears this season, would have been what it took to secure Cooper. Cooper is only 28 years old and would have made this wide receiver group look almost scary.
One final option would have been to re-sign Allen Robinson. I’m not as high on him as I am Cooper, but they have similar production and abilities. Cooper is more consistent though. Had this group had one of these three, people would feel very different about the talent in this group.