Now in his third season, Chicago Bears wide receiver Javon Wims feels ready to be a trusted contributor to the offense in 2020.
The Chicago Bears‘ wide receivers corps left something to be desired in 2019. Allen Robinson had a very good year, receiving a huge chunk of the targets and eclipsing one thousand yards. Aside from him, however, things weren’t so good.
Anthony Miller was second on the list in terms of targets but had fewer targets than running back Tarik Cohen. Also, it wasn’t until around mid-season that he started to heat up but then cooled off again at the tail end of the season. Taylor Gabriel had a great game against Washington but did very little against everyone else. The other receivers were basically fillers — they got on the field but received little attention.
One of those fillers was Javon Wims. Wims was the Bears’ seventh-round pick in 2018. He played in 20 games in his first two seasons, but 16 of them came last season. Despite playing in every game, he received only 39 targets (an average of 2.4 targets per game), catching 18 of them for 186 yards and a touchdown.
This season, however, Wims wants things to be different. Wims worked hard in the offseason and the coaches noticed a difference. He’s battling Riley Ridley and Ted Ginn for the outside receiver spot opposite Robinson. At 6-foot-4 and weighing 220 pounds, he has the size to be an asset. He runs good routes and has good hands. Additionally, he has the body control to make contested catches.
Chicago Bears wide receivers coach Mike Furrey loves the improvements Wims made this offseason. He says Wims looks like a different player.
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I think Javon has taken some of the deficiencies that he’s kind of a little bit stubborn about denying, probably, I would say over the last couple years—things that he needs to work on—and he’s really been open to coaching and very receptive of those ideas. He looks like a different player than he has been in the first two [seasons]. He looks faster, he looks quicker, he looks stronger in and out of his transitions.
In his time at the professional level, Wims tried to rely too much on his big body. He could do that in college, but at the higher level everyone is strong. While he could bully defenders at the line of scrimmage in college, the professional players can absorb hits and hit back. That made it difficult for Wims to run his routes and get open. It seems like he flipped the switch and gets it now.
we’ve heard the same things about improvement about all the receivers in camp. It could just be training camp talk by the coaches to pump up their players. On the other hand, if the receivers indeed make big improvements it means the wide receivers unit will be tougher to defend in 2020.
