The Chicago Bears did not make the playoffs, and now that the 2023 regular season is over, the team will begin to focus on 2024. The team is young and has an ascending group of core players who have started to establish themselves over the past eight weeks. However, there are some players who saw this fun second half and will now move on to a new team.
Which starters will be gone and will need to be replaced this offseason?
5. The Chicago Bears will finally move on from Lucas Patrick
The Chicago Bears needed a center around this time last year. Also, we speculated that both Lucas Patrick and Cody Whitehair would be cut candidates, as their salary did not match their play, and the Bears could throw more depth at the position for that money.
Instead, the Bears brought both Whitehair and Patrick back. Whiethair was supposed to be the week one starter at center, but an injury to Teven Jenkins had him shift over. His season was a nightmare. He is included with Patrick here because he is not a starter, but this is another player who will not be back.
With Whitehair over to center, the Bears' backup center, Lucas Patrick, had to step up. To be fair, they had him as a starting center last year before his preseason injury derailed those plans. Still, despite the Bears signing him as a starter last year and giving him a second chance to start this year, he has struggled every step of the way.
The Chicago Bears locked down their four offensive line spots. Braxton Jones has done enough at left tackle, and Darnell Wright has a bright future at right tackle. When Teven Jenkins and Nate Davis play together, the run game looks strong. So, they just need a center. This will mean moving on from all of the in-house options and starting over.
4. The Chicago Bears are not going to re-sign Darnell Mooney
This had been a miserable season for Darnell Mooney. He was coming off a season-ending ankle injury last year, and he missed almost the entire offseason. He came back for week one, but you could see he was not the same player.
You could argue he was not the same player all year. He had a few moments where he connected with both Tyson Bagent and Justin Fields down the field, but he never strung anything consistent together. This was a big year for Mooney. He is a free agent and was playing to prove that he belongs in the Chicago Bears' plans.
The Bears drafted Tyler Scott, and while he has not played well this year, his size and profile suggest that next year would feature more snaps, filling the role that Darnell Mooney played this year.
Mooney suffered a concussion that caused him to miss the last two games of the season, and no one can blame him for wanting to protect himself after such a bad end to it. The question now is, what team will sign Darnell Mooney? It will not be the Chicago Bears.
3. The Chicago Bears should move on from Justin Jones
Justin Jones was signed to a two-year deal, almost only because the Chicago Bears needed a backup plan after signing Larry Ogunjobi failed. Considering the circumstances, the player turned out well. He has started the last two years, and he was a part of the turnaround.
However, he may not be here when the juice gets squeezed. Justin Jones is blocking playing time for two rookies, Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens. Both of them have shown some signs of progress, but neither has been able to pass up Jones.
Still, the plan when they drafted both was to ease them in and then have them take over so they do not have to re-sign Justin Jones. The Bears will move Dexter into the starting role, and after the flashes he has shown in year one, there is plenty of optimism for year two. Then, Pickens will be the backup and will play more on run-downs. They will need a backup to Andrew Billings, but it will come cheaper than Justin Jones, who will leave with fond memories
2. The Chicago Bears will not re-sign Yannick Ngakoue
Yannick Ngakoue had not played for the last three games, and he has a bad ankle now that requires season-ending surgery. To be honest, the Chicago Bears were not going to bring Ngakoue back, even before his injury. Ngakoue was in the midst of the worst year of his career.
He had four sacks, with his career-low before this game being eight. He was not going to make that up in the final games, either. Ngakoue had a 4.8% pass rush win rate this year, which was down from 7.1% last year and 10.7% the year before.
Most of his sacks came in clean-up duty because Montez Sweat was making so much noise. He was not excelling with Sweat. The Chicago Bears started to reduce his snaps and play DeMarcus Walker on his side more in the two weeks prior to his injury. The Bears will add more edge rusher help, but they will not be bringing back Yannick Ngakoue.
1. Was this the last time we saw Justin Fields with the Chicago Bears?
This is the biggest question of them all. A lot of the questions that were asked from Justin Fields have been answered in recent weeks. He has limited his sacks and turnovers. His rushing has proven to work with a strong defense and a solid offensive line. The Bears have been able to win games down the stretch because of him.
If the Chicago Bears add another pass catcher beyond D.J. Moore, they could really be in business moving forward. So, why is he on this list? We all know it. The Chicago Bears have the number one overall pick, thanks to the Carolina Panthers.
They have the rare chance to finish near the middle of the pack but also get out of their situation due to the draft. Does that mean trading Justin Fields and adding a quarterback? If they bring back Justin Fields, they will have to start talking money. Are they interested in that? This will be the big debate for a few months.