Chicago Bears: For a Change, The Offense has Some Speed

This offseason, the Chicago Bears added plenty of speed. That speed makes running head coach Matt Nagy’s system run more efficiently.

Well, the Chicago Bears were busy rebuilding the roster. General manager Ryan Pace prioritized fixing an offense that really struggled over the past decade or so. Even in their 12-4 2018 season, the offense wasn’t a juggernaut. It took advantage of the incredible defense.

The Bears might have finally found their franchise quarterback in Justin Fields. They also rebuilt the offensive line, adding mean and nasty players. They also solidified the wide receivers corps both through the draft and through free agency.

In trying to rebuild the offense, the Bears made adding speed a priority. For decades, this is something the offense sorely lacked. Speed kills an opposing defense. When you have speedy players on the field, it opens space. The defense worries about getting beat deep and that helps the underneath players. Those guys now have space to go one-on-one against defenders.

In Peter King’s recent Football Morning In America articles, he noted how the Bears added speed to the offense.

The Bears aren’t known as a fleet team, but they’ll bring four receivers to camp with sub-4.4-second times in the 40-yard dash: Marquise Goodwin (4.27 seconds), Damiere Byrd (4.35), Darnell Mooney (4.38) and Anthony Miller (4.38)—though Miller’s Chicago future is uncertain.

Speed helps Matt Nagy’s offense run better

The added speed helps head coach Matt Nagy’s offense run more efficiently. Nagy always preaches playing fast and having players in space. With the lack of speed, he hasn’t been able to have that. Additionally, not having game-breaking players makes the offense a slow, plodding one.

However, the speed isn’t only with the receivers. Now, with David Montgomery, Damien Williams, and Tarik Cohen, the Bears have quick, agile, and elusive backs. Add that to the offense and the Bears have game-breaking ability on the ground and in through the air. They also have Artavis Pierce and Khalil Herbert, two speedsters who likely spend more time on special teams. They could see some time in the offense, though, and make big plays.

While Montgomery doesn’t have elite speed, running only a 4.63-40 at the NFL Combine, he’s worked on getting faster himself. He has a new trainer who helped him add speed to his game.

I’ve been working with probably the best speed trainer in the world in Chris Korfist. He’s actually teaching me how to run… I’ve not been able to run properly the entirety of my life.

With the training, Montgomery added 1.5 miles per hour to his speed. It’s estimated that he now runs a 4.4-40. Add that speed to his incredible balance and tackle-breaking ability and he is ready for a breakout season.

With Justin Fields, the Bears have even more speed. He ran a 4.44-40, the fastest for a quarterback in 15 years. Once he takes over as QB1, he’ll give defenses headaches. Not only do they have to watch out for the speedy receivers and elusive and quick running backs they also need to worry about Fields tucking the ball and making a big play with his legs.

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As King mentioned, the future is unknown for Miller. Everyone expected the Bears to drop Miller after his confounding ejection in last season’s playoff game. Also, his penchant for disappearing in games frustrated the coaching staff (and fans) to no end. However, with the added pieces to the receiving corps, and the fact that he lost snaps to Mooney last season, his competitive nature should come out and help improve his play. Furthermore, the Bears really want him to succeed in Chicago. If they wanted him gone they would have shipped him out before the draft and gain whatever draft picks they could. If he finds his groove and plays well, this becomes a dangerous Chicago Bears offense.

We haven’t seen all this speed on the Chicago Bears offense. This is an exciting addition and should make watching the unit fun. Fun is something we haven’t associated with the Bears offense for quite some time.