How Chicago Bears WR depth chart should look Monday

When the Chicago Bears take on the New England Patriots, it will be their first game in about ten days thanks to the time off between Thursday Night Football and Monday Night Football. With that in mind, the team had a chance to make some changes this week and get the time to implement them in practice.

Beyond that, the Chicago Bears are getting healthier, particularly at wide receiver. The team has elevated N’Keal Harry from the IR, and while he was on the roster last week, he should make his Bears debut this week.

Beyond that, this will now be four games in which rookie Velus Jones is active. He missed the first three weeks of the season with a hamstring injury, and that delayed how the Chicago Bears were able to implement him into the offense. Now that they had time, were they able to get in a couple of packages for Velus Jones?

What should the Chicago Bears WR depth chart look like?

Even with these two names back, the Chicago Bears are likely to keep their top wideouts the same. Equanimeous St. Brown has won the job as the X wide receiver. He does the dirty work no one else wants to do like blocking and running routes that are designed to free up others.

ESB has done a fine job in this role, and it is hard to see the team removing him. St. Brown at the X also allows the Bears to move Darnell Mooney around. He spends over 60% of his routes in the slot, but otherwise is the Z who moves around and can benefit from the routes that ESB runs.

With those two locked in, Harry and Jones will be mixed in as the third and fourth wideouts. Essentially, one way to look at it is that Harry will play outside, and Jones in the slot.

When Harry is on the field, Mooney will surely be in the slot. During these times the Chicago Bears will have big-time strength in the run-blocking game, but the presence of Mooney in the slot can also stretch the defense.

When Jones comes in, he will likely be in the slot, so Mooney will be out wide. Most of these plays will involve Jones in motion, as well as some sort of fake to him, whether it be a jet sweep or screen.

Obviously, the team will also scheme the football into his hands. Still, Jones is more of a gadget player who does not have defined routes. When he is on the field it will be more package plays, compared to Harry who can see most of the playbook, including the wide array of run plays.

With that in mind, Darnell Mooney and Equanimeous St. Brown should be the top two, but Harry will likely be the third wide receiver, with Jones coming as the fourth wideout.