The Chicago Bears started the season horribly, but their last four games have gone much smoother. The team is starting to see players grow into their roles, and they are getting contributions from players who were not providing the same impact they were in the early weeks.
Who is stepping up and can we expect similar results moving forward?
3. The Chicago Bears are starting to get Tyler Scott involved
We are starting to see a lot more Tyler Scott. After averaging 12.8 snaps per game and 64 snaps played overall in the first five weeks of the season, Scott is now up to 39.5 snaps per game and 79 total snaps in the last two weeks.
Scott went from 20 yards in five games to 31 over the last two weeks. He also added 14 yards on the ground against the Las Vegas Raiders. It is not like he has taken over, but these are small steps, and we can only expect his role to grow.
First, some of the reasons his role expanded did not have to do with him. Chase Claypool got traded, and Equanimeous St. Brown was placed on the IR. It is not like Velus Jones is going to play wide receiver, so the Bears had to get Tyler Scott in there. Still, they could have leaned into more tight-end usage and fewer wide receivers, but the development of Scott has been there.
It also helps that Tyson Bagent was the one working with Scott so often this summer. He comes in with a better rapport than he does with Justin Fields. It may just be another game or so with Bagent, but that could be enough for Scott to be a key member of the offense. 15 yards per game is not crazy, but it is just the start of what he is doing, and bigger performances could come down the stretch.
2. The Chicago Bears need a career-year from Jaylon Johnson
This was going to be a huge year for Jaylon Johnson. He entered the year without a contract and is going to need to have a strong year to get paid in free agency this spring. The team may try to re-sign him, but at this point, he is expected to be on a new team next year. So, there is a lot on the line.
We wrote this summer that Johnson needed to create more interceptions if he wanted to see the big money. Johnson got his hands on a lot of footballs and broke plenty of passes up over his career, but he did not have the interception numbers that were going to get him paid.
With one pick in three years, Johnson doubled that number in one afternoon against the Las Vegas Raiders. Not only did he pick off two passes, he took one to the house. We wrote that the way Johnson plays should allow him to pick more passes off; it was just a matter of regressing back to the mean from all of his pass breakups. So, it should not be a surprise that they came in bunches. It also means that they may keep coming.
This is obviously a factor he knows about entering free agency, and it is a focus that he has improved on. His improvement, plus being due for a pick or two, could keep this going towards the end of the year. Jaylon Johnson is healthy now, and he may be playing his best football. This could be exciting to watch.
1. Will the Chicago Bears keep playing Gervon Dexter?
Slowly but surely, Gervon Dexter is coming along for the Chicago Bears. Dexter has been up and down with his snap counts all season. In the first two weeks, he played 38.3% and 46.5%. However, after that, he went down to 33.8% and then 20.8%.
His career-high was week five, 47.1% of the snaps, but it immediately dropped to 28.1% in the next game. Now, Dexter is back on the upswing, playing 41.5% of the snaps. The team favors his pass rushing to the run-stopping, so a lot of the time, his snaps in the second half can come down to circumstances.
However, he has shown solid improvement as a run defender and has shown to be too good as a pass rusher to keep him off of the field for as long as the Bears do. It makes sense to ease the rookie into the first few weeks of the season, and there will be mistakes. Still, the team is sitting at 2-5, and they can handle a mistake or two. This should be a continued upswing for Dexter now.