The Chicago Bears are off to a 1-2 start to the season. While this is not a disaster, it certainly is not where the fans saw this team being. The Bears’ activity this offseason had some of the hopes a little high entering the year, but some of the decisions they made are not turning out to be great. What is costing this team right now?
3. The Chicago Bears do not use D’Andre Swift well
Arguably the most questionable decision the team made this offseason was signing D’Andre Swift. It was notable that after Swift had the best year of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Eagles decided to let Swift walk and pay more to upgrade to Saquon Barkley. It is as if the Eagles said that if Swift can do that, just imagine what a good running back will do here.
35 running backs have 20 carries or more this season. He ranks 34th in success rate, ahead of just Zamir White. He is tied with Rachaad White for the worst yards per attempt. Swift was signed because he can catch out of the backfield well. He has just six catches for 46 yards.
Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson are better than Swift and their cap hits are much lower. It is one thing to pay for someone who is not making a big difference. The Bears are paying Swift and he is hurting the team.
2. The Chicago Bears are fading out Gerald Everett
When the Chicago Bears signed Gerald Everett the fear was always that he was going to play too much. Everett knows Shane Waldron from their time together, not only in Seattle but also in Los Angeles. He knows the playbook and how Waldron wants to do things. When Everett was outplaying Kmet in the preseason, it was alarming. In week one, Everett out-snapped Kmet. From there, the two switched.
Everett went from 60% of the offensive snaps in week one down to 36% in week two and then 33% last week. It is clear the Bears are already phasing him out. This makes plenty of sense when you consider he has caught three passes for zero yards.
He is not electric in the passing game and Kmet has proven to be better. This goes beyond the past few years, but even in the last two weeks, Kmet has proven to be much better. Everett is also significantly worse as a blocker. So, there is no reason for him to be anything more than a backup tight end who rarely plays.
1. The Chicago Bears did not fix the interior offensive line
The Bears thought they finally fixed the offensive line. They did not just add starters, they added some depth to finish things off. However, after three weeks, it has not come together. Injuries are a bit of the issue, but Ryan Poles and his weird obsession with Ryan Bates has not worked out.
Poles missed on Bates two years ago and swung for him again this year. He took center snaps from Coleman Shelton, he took guard snaps from Nate Davis and now he is hurt so they both lost reps and were still called on to start. Shelton signed due to familiarity with Waldron, but all of the Waldron additions have been poor. Davis struggled and has been injured, so depth piece Matt Pryor had to start.
A cheap depth addition starting over the highly paid free agent acquisition had fans thinking that the line would improve. That is not what you want to hear. So, we are in year three of Poles trying to fix the line and it looks like we will move into year four with big questions as well. From Davis last year to Bates and Shelton this year, it has not worked.