The Chicago Bears are sitting at 3-8, and the chances of making a playoff run are now slim to none. The rest of the season will be about watching players who should be back next year to see what type of expectations should be set for their future.
The Bears will need to see growth from the following players, or else there will be a long offseason wondering about their status with the team.
6. The Chicago Bears can now get a longer evaluation of Nate Davis
The 2023 season has been a big whiff for Nate Davis so far. This is not great, considering it is his first year with a new team. First impressions are important, and the Bears are not getting a good one from Davis. To be fair, a lot went against him, and there is a chance for him to play better down the stretch.
Davis was awful in week one, but it can be explained in some regard. He missed the entire offseason and came in with about one week of practice in the month before the season. More than that, he had a personal issue that he was dealing with that could have impacted his play.
He missed weeks two and three as he dealt with the issues, and by week four, he was back in the lineup. In week five, the Bears scored 40 points, and it was the best that the run blocking had looked. Maybe Nate Davis had to do with that?
However, in week six, he was hurt again. By week 11, he returned but gave up a sack to Alim McNeil. Still, he has started five games. In three of them, he was returning from missed time. One of them he got hurt again, and one of them, the Bears offense, took off.
Monday night against Minnesota will be the second game all year where he looks to play a game where he is not coming off of missed time and not missing time during the game. If this can continue for the final six games, we could get a big enough sample to see what he can bring to the Bears.