The Chicago Bears most recent loss to the Cleveland Browns nearly ensured that the team would not be making the playoffs this season. The team has three games to play, and they could get to 8-9, which would be impressive after an 0-4 start, but it is not enough. Still, plenty of players have a lot on the line and a lot to play for in the final three games. Which players will be impacted the most?
3. Justin Fields is playing for a job with the Chicago Bears or elsewhere
Justin Fields may or may not be the Chicago Bears quarterback next year. If the Bears ran into the playoffs with momentum, he almost certainly would have been back, but that dream shattered in Cleveland. Fields played poorly against Cleveland, but that is the best defense in the NFL, and they are leaps and bounds better at home than on the road.
Fields got the wrong team at the wrong time. Still, he did not get completely exposed and made a few plays that kept the team in the game. His pressure-to-sack rate stayed down for the fourth straight game, and all signs point to massive improvement in almost every area for the third-year quarterback.
If the Chicago Bears did not have the Carolina Panthers' top pick, this may not be as much of a debate. However, now that the Bears have a chance to replace him, every throw will be overanalyzed for the next three games.
The good news is that Arizona will be the worst defense that Fields will face all season, and he gets them at home as a favorite. Justin Fields has to dominate this defense and show any team, the Bears, or a future team looking to add a quarterback, that he can still play.
2. Darnell Mooney has to play better for the Chicago Bears
This is turning into a worst-case-scenario season for Darnell Mooney. His yards per route run for his career is 1.37, and it was 1.58 last year. His career-low entering the season was 1.2, and his career-high was 1.78. This year, he is averaging 0.94 yards per route run.
He had another poor game against the Browns that was capped off by the failed Hail Mary attempt. Mooney had a small stretch with Tyson Bagent, and it looked like he was starting to play better. He had four games where he averaged 51 yards per game. Aside from that, he is averaging 20.6 yards per game. It simply is not working for him and the Chicago Bears.
This is just awful timing. The Bears need him because they have no other receiver help. Tyler Scott is just a rookie, Equanimeous St. Brown is gone, and Chase Claypool was traded. This has hurt their ability to see what they have in Justin Fields. Worse than that for him is knowing that he is a free agent this year.
Mooney will be coming off of an injury and the worst year of his career. That is pretty bad timing. Mooney has three games to turn this around and give himself some sort of contract leverage for the offseason.
1. The Chicago Bears may lose Justin Jones this offseason
This will be an important stretch for Justin Jones. Jones signed a two-year deal with the Chicago Bears, and that will be up after this season. Considering the Bears drafted both Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens, they would like to move on from Jones and give them more snaps. Still, that has not happened yet in the rookie season for these two.
Jones has a 6% pass rush win rate this year. That is slightly up from 5.6% last year. Still, that is just about the player that he is. He is good and serviceable, but you would like to have better for your starting front. The Bears found Andrew Billings and will give Justin Jones three more games to prove that he is that guy.
While Jones may not show that, he has a lot to show. He will be due a contract, and the Bears paid him favorably during the last time because they had just swung and missed on Larry Ogunjobi. It will be a real question of whether or not Jones can get the same deal that he got last time around at this point. He has time to show what he can do, but we have to see it over the next few weeks.