Three weeks ago, New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo, fed up following his team’s sixth consecutive loss, said “We’re a soft football team across the board.” It’s worth wondering what Mayo’s blunt and honest assessment of the Chicago Bears would be after the Patriots came into Soldier Field on Sunday and kicked them around in a 19-3 victory.
That’s not suggesting the Bears, who fell to 4-5 with their third consecutive loss since the bye week, are playing soft. But they are in disarray and they’re not seemingly getting worse with the schedule now ratcheting up. They are getting worse.
Here are 10 thoughts about the Bears in crisis mode at Halas Hall.
1. Matt Eberflus has a mess on his hands.
The Bears’ previous two losses were defined by viral moments — cornerback Tyrique Stevenson interacting with the crowd at Washington during the game’s final play and wide receiver DJ Moore leaving the field during a long scramble by quarterback Caleb Williams and heading to the bench. This was a completely flat and listless effort and for the second consecutive week, things slipped away at the end of the second quarter as the Patriots scored 10 points in the final 1:46 to mount what proved to be an insurmountable 13-3 lead.
“This game right here, obviously, as the head football coach, all disappointed, accepting accountability for everything and then, really, just looking inward at myself first and that’s what I ask the players to do too and the coaches,” Eberflus said. “We’ve got to take a good, hard look at everything that we’re doing and play good, complementary football.”
Nothing the Bears have said since returning to the field after their bye week — when they sat at 4-2 with a shot at challenging in the NFC North and the conference — has sparked optimism. They talk about getting the details down. They talk about communicating. They talk about meetings more than any team I’ve ever covered. What they haven’t done is deliver on the field. In this game No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams was outplayed by the No. 3 pick, Drake Maye, and the Patriots have a roster in transition with a new coach and significant changes in the front office all in Year 1.
It doesn’t look bleak for Eberflus, it is bleak. Some expectations for this team were way too high. Some threw out crazy talk about the franchise going “all in” on this season as if the Bears were ready to announce themselves as championship contenders. But with common sense and good reasons, it was fair to believe the Bears would be better than the 7-10 team on the field last season. Good luck finding four victories on the remainder of this schedule.
Eberflus erred after the Washington game when he didn’t fall on his sword after losing on a Hail Mary and accepting reasonable criticism of the defensive strategy the team used on the game’s penultimate play. It was a fluke way to lose a game, as the winning pass was tipped to an uncovered man in the end zone, but it happened and barring some kind of miracle that will prove to be the tipping point this season.
How much damage Eberflus incurred in the locker room by doubling and then tripling down on his strategy at the end of the game is a moot point now. Damage was done and based on what the Bears have put on tape since, and who knows if they can regather themselves with a gauntlet of division games coming up — home versus the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings and then at the Detroit Lions for a nationally televised Thanksgiving Day game, precisely the kind of spotlight this team wishes it could avoid right now.
Column: The Chicago Bears can’t go on like this. After another woeful loss, something must change.
After being trampled in Arizona, the Bears got back to their formula of playing winning defense. They limited the Patriots to one touchdown on five trips to the red zone but had an embarrassing offensive showing.
The loss was a jarring end to the team’s eight-game winning streak at Soldier Field and it came when the Bears were a 6-point favorite, the largest spread in favor of the team in the Eberflus era. It came against a team the Bears stunned back during Week 7 in 2022 on “Monday Night Football.” The Bears entered as an 8 1/2-point underdog and beat New England 33-14, improving to 3-4 and sparking optimism in the days that led up to the Chase Claypool acquisition.
The Patriots were fuming after that game and, as I am told, reported their opponent to the league for a violation as the Bears inadvertently had multiple linebackers on the field at the same time with green-dot helmets — helmets equipped with speakers to get pre-snap calls from coaches. It was an oversight on the sideline and the NFL fined the Bears, according to my source.
The Bears didn’t win another game during that 2022 season and the Patriots, although they’ve had considerable turnover since, exacted revenge. It’s fair to wonder if the Bears will win another game this season. It’s going to be difficult if they cannot unravel much of what is ailing the offense, which seems like nearly everything.
“We’ve got to take a hard look, inward look, accept accountability and be accountable to the guy to the right and the guy to the left,” Eberflus said. “That’s how you do this thing when you have adversity like this. That’s how you pull together, and that’s the only answer you can have. But, again, like I said, I’ll take full responsibility for it.”
2. It was late in the 2004 season and I was walking through the hallway at Halas Hall toward the locker room when an offensive assistant signaled to me.
“Who me?” I said, assuming he must have been calling for someone behind me.
“You,” he said.
“What’s up?” I replied.
“Have you ever seen anything this (messed) up?” he asked.
That was a rhetorical question about what was a heinously bad Bears offense for coach Lovie Smith and offensive coordinator Terry Shea. I relay this exchange because the 2024 Bears offense sure has a similar look. We haven’t seen anything this (messed) up in quite some time.
The Bears have scored 27 points over the last three games since the bye week, only the fourth time since the 2004 season they’ve gone through such a scoring drought. The last time it happened was from Weeks 13-15 in 2011 when Caleb Hanie was starting in place of an injured Jay Cutler. It happened twice during the 2004 season, once in a three-game stretch with Chad Hutchinson as the starting quarterback and early in the season when Jonathan Quinn was the starter.
This isn’t supposed to happen with Caleb Williams, the top pick in the draft, in place and with a cast of skill position talent around him that is far superior to what Shea had to work with and way ahead of what Cutler and Hanie had at their disposal in 2011.
I suggested in this space last week after the 29-9 loss at Arizona that Matt Eberflus would consider sacking first-year offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Regular readers know that is not something I normally do. Writing they should can the coach is the easy out, the knee-jerk reaction and it’s seldom a possibility the team is even considering.
After Eberflus backed Waldron last Monday, it sounds like change could be on the table now.
“We’ll look at everything from the top to the bottom, making sure that we’re finding the answers to move the ball down the field, play better as a football team on offense, defense, and special teams,” Eberflus said.
OK. Is changing the play caller an option?
“I said we’ll look at everything,” Eberflus said. “Everything is going to be looked at.”
I’m not sure how Eberflus can look inward and believe there are solutions with the way the Bears are currently leading the offense. Waldron hasn’t inspired confidence since he arrived. He doesn’t capture the room when he speaks. He’s not creative enough from a design and play-calling standpoint to produce results. The operation is sloppy from pre-snap penalties to poor execution.
Quite frankly, the Bears would be better had they retained Luke Getsy, who was public enemy No. 1 for pretty much his entire run with the Bears except for a six-game span in 2022.
If this latest showing doesn’t lead to change, Eberflus is backed into a corner and knows that firing a second offensive coordinator nine games in is only an indictment of himself.
- Williams was sacked nine times by a defense that had totaled eight sacks combined in its previous six games. The Patriots have been so desperate to find pass rushers they claimed former Bears defensive end Yannick Ngakoue on waivers Friday. The nine sacks tied a franchise record for New England. It’s tied for the second-most sacks the Bears have allowed in a game and the first time they’ve given up nine since Justin Fields’ first career start at Cleveland in 2021.
In this instance, the Bears were without starting offensive tackles Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright and three linemen were out injured with Kiran Amegadjie and Nate Davis inactive and Bill Murray on injured reserve.
- The Bears converted 1 of 14 third downs and the 51 yards lost on sacks reduced their average gain per pass attempt to 1.8 yards. The Patriots entered the game 27th in the league on third down.
- The Bears have gone 23 consecutive possessions without a touchdown — the last two games — and have two touchdowns in 34 possessions since the bye week with 11 three-and-punts in that span.
- Explosive plays remain too few and far between. Williams began the third quarter with an 18-yard pass to DJ Moore along the New England sideline. Moore got up and was emphatic in his celebration.
“You win your one-on-one and that’s what happens,” said Moore, after noting the Patriots played a lot of single-high coverage.
“A lot of man coverage,” Moore said. “Got (a) lot of playmakers on the field that can beat man coverage and we just didn’t get it done today.”
The next longest “gain” the Bears had was a 15-yard penalty against Patriots linebacker Jahlani Tavai for roughing the quarterback.
That was it. No explosive pass plays. No explosive runs. Nothing.
Players were queried about whether or not they believe a change of coordinator is required.
“Nah, I think we’ve got the leaders from top to bottom,” Moore said.
Players aren’t going to call for change. They know that’s above their pay grade and they don’t want to be known as a problem in the locker room even if the problem would be speaking the truth.
I don’t know if Eberflus is going to make a change. I honestly believed he’d consider it long and hard after the trip back from Arizona. Nothing would surprise me at this point short of Waldron finding the answers on his own.
Maybe Eberflus turns to passing game coordinator Thomas Brown. Who knows? Maybe he goes outside the organization and calls someone like Jon Gruden, although that seems highly unlikely.
“I mean, they’re not going to reinvent the wheel, in a sense, you know,” Williams said when asked if he could roll with a change. “We’re midseason, and it’s not a decision for me. I have to do what (Eberflus) says. I have to deal with whatever decision he makes, and I have to be fine with it. Will I be able to adapt? Yes, I will. We’ll be able to adapt, whatever decision coach makes. From there, we have to go out and execute and win games.”
It sure seems like something should happen because it’s (messed) up. No one can deny that. Shea wasn’t fired in-season but Smith was in Year 1 and knew he had security. Eberflus doesn’t have that same benefit.
3. The Bears’ issues on offense begin on the offensive line and they were in a tough spot Sunday, being so short-handed without the tackles.
Don’t minimize that in an evaluation of the situation and know that GM Ryan Poles is as aware as everyone watching this season unfold that he will need to be aggressive in rebuilding the unit in the offseason. The hope is Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright, who both have minor knee injuries, will return this coming week.
That doesn’t account, however, for the ongoing issue Shane Waldron, Caleb Williams and the offense have getting the ball to the skill position talent. The Bears, if they were operating at a high level, would have an advantage against opposing defenses if they could find ways to consistently feed the ball to DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze and Cole Kmet.
Moore had three receptions for 24 yards. It was the sixth game he was limited to 36 yards or less. That’s the kind of production the Bears could get from receivers they’ve rolled out for their quarterbacks in the recent past like Kendall Wright, Anthony Miller and Cameron Meredith. They signed Moore to a $110 million contract extension in August and suddenly he can’t be a gamebreaker.
Allen had 44 yards against the Patriots. That’s a season-high. He hasn’t been the chain mover on third down the Bears had hoped. If he hasn’t completely lost it in his 12th season — I doubt that is the case — this is a problem.
Kmet, who had one target and no catches over the previous two games, wasn’t targeted in the first half and finished with four targets, two catches and 13 yards. He’s another player the Bears have paid and too often he’s a total nonfactor.
“A lot of it is just the flow of the game,” Kmet said. “How the flow of the offense is going. Obviously we haven’t been up to standard the past three weeks. That’s just what happens. There are other guys in here that aren’t used to what’s going on either. I’m sure if you talked to DJ, Keenan, Rome, D’Andre (Swift), I’m sure those guys are frustrated too. It just kinda is what it is at this point. As a collective offense we have to do a better job of sustaining drives and those kinds of things will come if we’re more efficient on offense.”
That’s just it. It’s not like production for certain marquee players is down because other players are holding the spotlight. The Bears cannot get their offense going and while it starts in the trenches, there’s no excuse for the offense to be this stuck and this bad nine games into the season. It’s an indictment of the entire operation and consequently, the Bears are forced to attempt to thread the needle when seeking ways to win because players who should be difference-makers for them simply are not.
4. With nose tackle Andrew Billings out for the remainder of the season following surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle, the run defense should become a key focus.
The Bears were better in this area as the Patriots ran 35 times for 144 yards, including one kneel-down by Drake Maye at the end of the game. Rhamondre Stevenson carried 20 times for 74 yards (3.7 average) and the long run was a 19-yard scramble by Maye.
It wasn’t great but this was a noted improvement from a week ago when the Cardinals gashed the Bears for a season-high 213 yards (6.3 average) and the week before at Washington when the Commanders piled up 168 yards.
Zacch Pickens, the third-round pick from last year, moved into the starting lineup. A groin injury had limited him to 18 snaps through the first eight games and, from the press box perch, he looked OK. By my unofficial count, Pickens had 31 snaps, including plays that had penalties. Byron Cowart, another defensive tackle, had 19 snaps and Chris Williams, more of a three-technique, had 21.
You’re probably looking at a rotation that leans heavily on these three players alongside Gervon Dexter, with DeMarcus Walker occasionally moving inside for the rest of the season. It has to remain a focus and the Bears are going to have to fit everything up properly with their linebackers and safeties to remain solid against the run.
It should be a huge point of emphasis this week. The Packers have proven to be plenty capable of running the ball. In two games without quarterback Jordan Love at the start of the season, Green Bay ran for 261 yards against the Indianapolis Colts and 188 yards against the Tennessee Titans, who are stout in the middle of their defensive line. That was with Malik Willis at quarterback when everyone knew the Packers would have to lean on the run.
The Packers have averaged 5 yards per rush in four of 10 games versus the Bears since Matt LaFleur took over as coach in 2019 and they piled up totals of 203, 182, 175 and 154 yards in four games. LaFleur has been blessed with elite quarterback play with Love and Aaron Rodgers, and he’s still crafted run-heavy game plans for the Bears over the years. I’ve got to believe he’s fast at work doing that right now.
5. There is so much wrong with the Bears offense right now that it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to start.
Third down is called the money down in the NFL — good teams find ways to convert at a good clip in order to keep the offense on the field — and the Bears entered Sunday 31st in the league at 31.5%, ahead of only the Cleveland Browns (28.682%).
Against the Patriots, the Bears were 1 for 14, lowering their percentage for the season to 28.688%, barely ahead of the Browns.
The Bears were 6-for-40 on third down in the last three games and have been above 40% in only two games — 9 for 21 (42.9%) at Indianapolis in Week 3 and 5 for 11 (45.5%) versus Jacksonville in Week 6.
“Similar to the early part of the season where the negative plays, the second-and-long, third-and-long situations have really crept up for us in those games where we haven’t had much success,” offensive coordinator Shane Waldron said Thursday. “Especially this past week where we are in multiple second-and-10 plus, third-and-longer. Generally speaking, those are the scenarios you want to stay out of as an offense.
“When we are going and playing at a higher level, we know we are getting more runs called because we are not having as many negative plays, we’re staying efficient with that balance of the run and the pass. Then you are in second-and-shorter up to first-and-10 back to second-and-shorter and able to execute at a higher level.”
Short-yardage situations have been especially frustrating as the offense has converted on third-and-1 only three times in nine attempts. The Bears are 3 for 8 on third-and-2. They didn’t have any short-yardage situations on Sunday as all 14 were third-and-3 or more and eight were third-and-7 or more.
Things are going to get murky for rookie quarterbacks on third down. But the Bears, who have had underwhelming offenses for much of the last couple of decades, have not been this poor on third down since 2005 when Kyle Orton was a rookie starter and the offense converted only 28.8% of third downs. The franchise low came in 2004 when the Bears were a measly 25.1%.
There have been a variety of explanations. The offense has gotten behind the sticks. It’s been hampered by self-inflicted mistakes. The bottom line is it’s a lack of execution across the board.
But what hasn’t gotten enough attention is the reality the Bears have been bad on first down as well.
Entering the game, the offense was 29th in the league on first down, averaging only 4.59 yards per play. The Patriots came in last in the NFL at 4.11 yards.
On Sunday, the Bears gained 62 yards on 21 first-down plays. There was an 18-yard pass to DJ Moore, completions of 11 yards (Rome Odunze) and 12 yards (Keenan Allen) but a total lack of production on first down put them behind the sticks on second and third downs.
With a plethora of skill position talent, the Bears haven’t been able to get explosive plays on first down that would move the needle for them statistically. They haven’t been able to win consistently on third down and until they can do those basic things, it’s going to be difficult to remain on the field and score with Seattle (Week 17) the only remaining opponent that didn’t enter Week 10 ranked in the top half of the league in scoring defense.
It’s easy to focus on third down, where the Bears have been bad. They get there by being bad earlier in the series.
6. Jaquan Brisker missed his fourth consecutive game and has been out five weeks with a concussion, which is concerning for all involved.
He missed two games as a rookie in 2022 and two more in 2023 with separate concussions.
After Matt Eberflus seemed relatively upbeat about Brisker’s improvement in previous weeks, the coach ruled Brisker out at the start of this past week. I wouldn’t necessarily take that as a bad sign regarding Brisker’s return to health but the longer he’s sidelined, the more questions will linger about ramifications for the strong safety.
Nothing I have heard gives me any indication Brisker is at a point where this is considered a potentially career-ending situation. But we have not heard from him and players in concussion protocol are off-limits to media. I did not see Brisker during the open locker room period this past week. I did see him in the locker room in the days leading up to the trip to Arizona and he has been in the facility regularly. According to a college scouting director with another team, who reviewed his club’s pre-draft report, Brisker did not have a history of concussions at Penn State.
“Jaquan is in good spirits,” safeties coach Andre Curtis told me Thursday. “I saw him a couple days ago and he was around the meetings, stuff like that. He’s doing whatever he’s supposed to be doing, stuff with the doctors and trainers and trying to get himself ready. I’ve talked to him on the phone. He was doing well. He sounded upbeat and he’s making progress.”
Brisker has yet to be cleared for a return to practice and given the amount of time he’s missed — perhaps longer than the team initially expected — there might be some time required to get his conditioning back up once he returns to the fold. That was one sign after the team signed safety JT Woods, a third-round pick of the Los Angeles Chargers in 2022, to the practice squad on Thursday.
One of the struggles players who are out with injuries face is feeling detached from the team. They’re no longer part of the daily and weekly mix to prepare for the next opponent and the natural inclusion that comes from that is missing. Along those lines, Curtis is doing everything he can to stay engaged with Brisker.
“He’s my guy,” Curtis said. “And when I was walking around during pregame in Arizona (Brisker did not travel with the team), I was texting him. I stay in contact with him. That’s what you don’t want (a player to feel left out). He’s a part of our family. We’re keeping everybody in the fold.
“He just knows that when he feels right, he’ll feel right. You know him. He wants everything right now. I said you have to listen to the doctors. Your resources are going to help guide you through this thing. You can’t rush it.”
The Bears have had concussions end the careers of players — or certainly lead to it — just like every other team. Just when it looked like Taylor Gabriel might be a key element in the Bears’ passing game in 2019, he was sidelined by concussions, injuries that ultimately truncated his career.
Gabriel caught three touchdown passes in the first half of a 31-15 victory at Washington in Week 3 of the 2019 season but suffered a concussion on a 7-yard run in the third quarter. Eight weeks later, in a game against the New York Giants, Taylor suffered another concussion. That ended Gabriel’s season, the Bears released him in the following offseason and he never played again. Gabriel had announced on social media that he was opting out of the 2020 season because of COVID-19. He said he had offers but chose not to play. He retired in the spring of 2021 after six seasons and 83 games. Gabriel missed three games in 2015 while with Cleveland because of a concussion and one game in 2016 with Atlanta because of a concussion.
Former tight end Ben Braunecker also suffered a concussion in his final NFL game — the same Giants game in 2019 where Gabriel had his final concussion. Braunecker was inactive for the next two games and spent the final three games on injured reserve. The Bears released him the next July before training camp.
Whether concussions directly ended the careers of Gabriel and Braunecker is unclear. What is certain is that repeated concussions forced linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer to retire in 2010. Hillenmeyer sustained five known concussions as a member of the Bears, the first in training camp in 2005 and the final in a 2010 preseason game against Arizona when he was simply coming off a block, a normal play.
“It shouldn’t have caused a concussion,” Hillenmeyer told me in 2012.
Concussions become especially problematic for players when they occur with more regularity and when they start happening on what look like innocuous plays. Brisker’s latest concussion occurred on a violent collision with Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble, who lowered his head to initiate contact and was fined by the NFL.
Hopefully, Brisker gets to a place in the near future where he’s healthy and can continue his career. It’s worth noting safety Tarvarius Moore, who was involved on special teams, left the game Sunday due to concussion protocols.
7. Finally, the Bears will dive into action against NFC North opponents with the Green Bay Packers coming to Soldier Field next Sunday.
The Week 11 game is the latest in the season the Bears have ever started divisional play. Six of their final eight games will come against rivals, including the next three — Green Bay, Minnesota and at Detroit on Thanksgiving.
It’s a critical stretch that will make or break the season for Matt Eberflus and his team. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the only other team waiting until Week 11 to play divisional foes. They host the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday.
The Tennessee Titans have played only one division game and the 30 other NFL teams have all played two or more. The entire AFC East has played three division games. In the AFC South, Atlanta and New Orleans have played five division games while Carolina and Tampa Bay have had three.
Before the season began, a positive spin for the Bears’ unique schedule was that it would allow Caleb Williams to get his feet underneath him in non-division games before the team went headfirst into the teeth of the schedule in what has shaped up to be the most competitive division in the league.
“We certainly didn’t set out to not have any division games (early in the season),” NFL vice president of scheduling Mike North said in a conference call with reporters in May. “It feels like a college basketball schedule, the non-conference games first. It wasn’t intentional but also it wasn’t necessarily something that we looked at and thought was unfair.
“There is a legacy from the (former broadcasting and media operations vice president) Howard Katz years of running the scheduling process: It’s division games late in the season. It’s always something we’re looking for, not forcing it in other than Week 18. More division games late in the season usually means fewer teams have clinched playoff spots.”
Here is how the NFC North sets up right now:
Team (Overall, Division)
- Lions (8-1, 2-0)
- Vikings (7-2, 1-1)
- Packers (6-3, 0-2)
- Bears (4-5, 0-0)
The upshot for the Bears is that roster health is paramount. The Lions will be without defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who is out with a broken leg, in both games. Hutchinson has 3 1/2 sacks, eight QB hits, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery in four games against the Bears.
“The league has to be thinking this creates more television drama,” an executive for a non-NFC North club said. “I don’t like it. I think you need time. I think it’s much better when you play your rivals in September or early October and then again in late November or December. It’s hard to play the same team twice so quickly. It puts pressure on coaches more than players. Win or lose, they’ve got to tweak and adjust game plans for the second meeting. Now, you have to turn around and play them again quickly and that’s tough.
“And then just the beating you take. Those division games are more physical in a lot of cases. There’s more energy in those games because they mean more in terms of getting in the playoffs. Playing Detroit twice in a short period of time, that could wreck your roster. They are so physical. Caleb Williams having to see Brian Flores (Vikings defense) twice in the second half of the season is hard. Shane Waldron isn’t creating a new scheme. He’s running the same boring stuff. Interesting why the league did that. I don’t like it.”
Tracking Caleb Williams: How the Chicago Bears QB is performing in his rookie season
One other twist for the Bears is the three-game homestand, which started with this Patriots game and will be followed by a three-game road trip at Detroit, San Francisco and Minnesota. Teams don’t mind three-game stretches at home. Three-game road trips can be an absolute grind, especially for a team like the Bears which has been consistently poor away from Soldier Field.
Three-game road trips are rare in the NFL and the Bears last had one in 2008 from Weeks 11-13 when they played at Green Bay, St. Louis and Minnesota.
“We talk about three-game road trips as though it’s the worst thing you can do to a team,” Mike North said. “I’m not sure that that’s true. I think sometimes it’s who you play, not where. We could break up somebody’s three-game road trip by taking away that third road game and giving them a home game against Kansas City or San Francisco. Is that really better?
“You think about this three-game road trip for the Bears from a competitive standpoint, the first one is Thanksgiving. Then you get that 10-day break before that second game. And then the third game is on a Monday night. So you actually get extra days between Games 1 and 2 and then 2 and 3. I hope they don’t look at that schedule and think that it was unfair.”
Every schedule is going to include some quirks. In this instance, what really stands out is the heavy emphasis on division games down the stretch run, with the only exceptions being the San Francisco trip and a home game versus Seattle on Dec. 26.
8. The Bears have gone to lengths to support Nate Davis in the season-and-a-half after signing him to a $30 million, three-year contract in free agency.
Unfortunately, I think it’s fair to say Davis hasn’t done the same for the team.
The veteran guard arrived at Soldier Field on Sunday morning and reported to the team that his back didn’t feel right. He was checked out by athletic trainer Andre Tucker and ruled out at 9 a.m. — three hours before kickoff — leaving the team with only seven linemen in uniform, one fewer than teams typically operate with.
Had the team not been hit by injuries — Bill Murray was placed on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle and Ryan Bates didn’t return to the 53-man roster until Saturday after a two-month stint on injured reserve — I believe Davis would have already been released.
The Bears could have used him on Sunday. If he wasn’t the next man up when left guard Teven Jenkins went out once again with an ankle injury, Davis at least could have provided insurance with Doug Kramer filling in.
Davis has had legitimate injuries with the Bears. He had a high ankle sprain last season that cost him four games. He injured his groin in training camp and then tweaked it before the season. The team has stood behind him and I’m not sure it’s gotten the same in response. Davis missed two games early last season following the passing of his mother. In professional football, two games is a big request even for a death in the family.
The Bears were positive during the offseason about Davis bouncing back this season. He hasn’t. He’s not a fit for the team’s culture. He has missed too much practice time. I don’t know what the immediate future holds for him. Hopefully, the back issue is minor and he’ll be healthy soon. Jenkins’ situation will be up in the air. He left the stadium in a walking boot and has had an inordinate number of games that he starts and cannot finish for one injury reason or another. That complicates roster dynamics.
But I have to believe as soon as the roster is in a spot where Davis isn’t needed, the Bears are going to move on from him. Had there not been some other injuries, that probably already would have happened.
9. Kudos to third-year safety Elijah Hicks for doing a solid job filling in for Jaquan Brisker.
If a safety is getting a lot of attention, he’s probably missing plays at the third level of the defense. The fact we haven’t heard a whole lot about Hicks, who has started the last four games, is probably a good thing.
Hicks had five tackles against the Patriots and a pass breakup and he’s reinforced the decision of the coaches to have him ahead of free-agent signing Jonathan Owens since the beginning of the offseason program. The seventh-round pick in 2022 has proven there’s a spot in the league for him.
It’s not his first experience on the field. Hicks started six games last season and got two as a rookie in 2022. He was mistake-prone then and some of the mistakes have been cleaned up.
“The goal every day, every week is just to get better,” Hicks said. “I am one of those people when I get feedback from players, coaches, I really work on those things. I think I just improved on the things I needed to improve on as well as being more comfortable in the defense. And I’ve got a lot better players around me too. That’s always going to help.”
When pressed for some examples, Hicks was pretty revealing.
“There were plays, especially with my tackling, where I would be inconsistent with that,” he said. “Obviously, I think I am a really good open-field tackler and a good hitter in general. But there would be plays, like versus Tampa Bay with Mike Evans when he was along the sideline and he kind of spun off of me and ran for a couple more yards. Just hit him out of bounds. I could have pushed him out of bounds. I made it harder than what it was.
“Just eliminating little stuff like that. Running full speed to try to knock someone out on a kill shot when it’s like you need to come under control and understand what type of runner you are going against. Does he like to cut back? Does he like to stiff arm? Understanding, ‘OK, these are the kind of guys I am going to be going against,’ so I have a plan when this situation comes up instead of giving all kinds of effort and then when I get there, ‘Oh shoot.’ I am preparing, ‘OK, this guy is going to be a cut-back runner.’
“So, after practice I am working on that. If it’s a stiff-arm runner, I am working on knocking down the stiff arm after practice. Even the tight ends. When I was studying Zach Ertz (before the Washington game), I was like, ‘OK, this dude likes to be dramatic with his stems and then go the opposite way.’ So, after practice I was working on going against that and not falling for the dramatic move one way before he goes the other way. Just becoming a more experienced veteran.
“A lot of people get caught up in wanting to be the finished product right then and there. That’s not the case for anybody. I think that’s what is important. Regardless of where you start, it doesn’t matter. The issue is if you are not getting better.”
Safeties coach Andre Curtis called Hicks “reliable,” which is one of the better compliments a position coach can give a player, and there’s a comfort level with Brisker recovering.
“Hicks is a sharp kid and I am happy for him,” Curtis said. “He’s doing well. He’s been ready for his moment. I think that is where he is.”
10. Carolina walked off the New York Giants on an Eddy Pineiro field goal Sunday morning in Germany, lifting the Panthers to 3-7 as they’ve now won consecutive games.
While it’s really early to start looking at draft position, that victory dropped Carolina to 10th in the draft order, according to Tankathon.com.
There are five three-win teams and six two-win teams and if I was wagering on where Carolina winds up at the end of the season, it will probably be in the top five. That’s of note because the Bears own the Panthers’ second-round pick. For what it’s worth, the Bears pick, based on the current standings, would be No. 16.
10a. Weak-side linebacker T.J. Edwards had a game-high 13 tackles (seven solos) with an interception. In 26 games with the Bears, Edwards has four interceptions, nine pass breakups, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. That’s impressive ball production for an off-the-ball linebacker.
10b. Look for more playing time moving forward for defensive end Jacob Martin, who had his second sack of the season. He’s bringing a little juice off the edge.
10c. It looked like Montez Sweat’s shin injury which kept him out of the Arizona game last week flared up Sunday. He left the field limping pretty good at one point and his snap count might have been a little reduced. It’s something to keep an eye on this week.
10d. The No. 1 Fox crew of Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady and Erin Andrews will call the Packers-Bears game from Soldier Field next Sunday.
10e. The Packers, who are coming off a bye, opened as a 6 1/2-point favorite over the Bears at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas. The Bears have lost 10 consecutive games to Green Bay. The Bears were favored in only two of those meetings — a 3 1/2-point favorite in the 2019 season opener at Soldier Field and a 1 1/2-point favorite for the Week 1 game at Soldier Field last season.
