The late-season bye can have its drawbacks, but one positive is that a lot of the players will get to finish the season fresher and healthier than a lot of their peers on rival teams. There are plenty of players who needed this bye week more than others to get healthy or rested, but some players also could just use the time to step away and improve. Which players should we expect to see their best football down the stretch?
The Chicago Bears can get a fair evaluation of Nate Davis
The Chicago Bears need to find out what Nate Davis can bring to the team. A lot of fans have already written him off, but that is not fair. He has gotten off to a slow start, but there are reasons to think he can get better.
He missed almost all of the offseason practices due to a personal matter. Davis was bad in week one and looked rusty before missing weeks two and three. Davis returned in week four but once again looked rusty. In week five, he finally had continuity playing and had his best game.
Of course, in week six, he got hurt again. So, in week 11, he once again took some time to get back, and in week 12, he looked good again. So, weeks five and 12 were the only games in which he started and finished at full health and had continuity from the prior week. The Bears won both games, and he looked great.
That gives us just enough to buy the idea that Davis can come out of the bye week and put together the best five games of the season. Does he end up proving the Bears right?
D.J. Moore has a chance to finish strong with the Chicago Bears
D.J. Moore has a chance to finish the year hot. He is already on pace to have a career year, but that gets even more impressive when you think that he had four games with Tyson Bagent.
In the four games that Bagent started, Moore averaged 52.8 yards per game. In the games that Justin Fields starts and finishes, D.J. Moore averages 106 yards per game.
Needless to say, these two have a good bond. It should only get better after the bye week. Fields will be completely healthy, and the duo picked up right where they left off in the last two games. Now, they have some time to build chemistry, which had been put on hold in recent weeks.
Moore gets a Lions defense that he already has success against, he gets a Cardinals defense that has issues, and a Falcons defense that is better against the run than the pass. With the chemistry and the connection he has with Fields growing and a few easy spots you should expect 500 more yards over the final five games.
Justin Fields has all of the pieces around him for success
The Chicago Bears are about to find out whether Justin Fields is the man for them or not. The Bears do not have a firm answer right now, but the reality is that they do not need one. They have five more games, and fortunately for them, things are set up for him to thrive.
As we noted, he has plenty of success with D.J. Moore. Darnell Mooney is healthier than ever, and this bye week could be a good time for these two to get on the same page. On top of that, his run game is better than ever, led by an offensive line that is finally as healthy as intended.
On the other hand, the defense is not going to consistently have his back up against the wall, and he actually will be put into positions of success. These five games should be the best that we see from Justin Fields. He should show that he can belong, and if there are any doubts after these five games, then the Bears need to move on.
The Chicago Bears need more from Tremaine Edmunds
Tremaine Edmunds is in the same spot as Nate Davis. It is easy to write him off as a bad free agency signing, but there is still a lot that can happen over the final five weeks that changes the perception around that.
Edmunds missed a lot of the offseason program as well. He missed with an injury. In the first few weeks, he looked like he got thrown into a defense that he did not spend much time practicing with. That is because that is what happened. Beyond that, players around him were dropping left and right with injuries. It left Edmunds in a spot where he was trying to make too many plays and was paying for it.
Edmunds missed two games, and the team started to get healthier. Montez Sweat was added into the mix. In the last two weeks since he returned, the defense has started to look like what Matt Eberflus saw in his head. Still, that means better play from Edmunds.
The Chicago Bears could see a late breakout from Gervon Dexter.
Most of the time, rookies are able to re-group after their bye week and come back better than ever. It is the first time they can pause and reflect on their own play, rest up, and get their body back to a better spot after a longer and more physical season than they have ever played. For Gervon Dexter, the bye week may have come at the perfect time.
Dexter is coming off of the best game of his career. His last three weeks have been the best stretch of winning as a pass rusher in his career.
As the Bears get into the final five games of the season, they should be incentivized to play Dexter more. Justin Jones is a free agent, and Dexter will be with the team next year. His play is improving while we know what Jones is. The Bears have unleashed a few new pass rush looks with Dexter coming off the edge.
Look for Dexter to play more than ever and thus have better stats than ever before. Still, his pass rush win rate per snap should stay around the same in this stretch.