Chicago Bears Offense Wasting Opportunity By Ignoring Tight Ends

While the Chicago Bears won their game in Week 4, the offense still needs work. One of the areas of concern is the lack of usage of the tight ends. That needs to change if they want to win more games.

After a week of tension leading up to their Week 4 game against the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears survived it all and came away with a huge victory. Had they lost, the fans and media would go to Halas Hall and take out the entire front office themselves.

Alas, we didn’t have to worry about that. The Bears won and smoothed some things over. Yes, there were still concerns, but a win seems to make people forget some struggles.

Make no mistake, this Chicago Bears team still has some struggles. The running game did well, and rookie quarterback Justin Fields made some big throws, but there is still a lot of work to do. For example, the offense converted just one of their eight third down attempts. For the season, they’ve converted just 28.9 percent of their third down attempts, ranking them dead last.

Another area of concern for the Bears is how they use (or don’t use to be more exact) their tight ends. Head coach Matt Nagy keeps talking about how important it is to use the tight ends, yet continued to ignore them.

The Bears have two pretty good tight ends in Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham. Kmet is a second-year player who is doing everything he can to improve. Graham is a grizzled old vet who had an impressive season last year. This season could be his swan song.

In four games this season, Kmet received just 15 targets, making 8 catches for 59 yards. Graham has 3 targets, catching one.

Those numbers are pretty ugly. When you did deeper, however, they get uglier. Of his 15 targets, Kmet received eight of them for 42 yards in the Bears’ Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Graham has just three catches on eight targets for 42 yards in the next three games combined.

The Graham situation is even worse. He has two games in which he wasn’t even targeted. What makes this hurt so much is that many people expected Chicago to cut him this offseason. The Bears would save themselves a big chunk of money by doing so. Instead, they decided to keep him. That had huge implications on the roster. Because the Bears had salary cap troubles, they had to cut All-Pro cornerback Kyle Fuller to free up space. That opened up a hole at the cornerback position that the team still hasn’t been able to fix.

So, to review, the Bears kept Graham and cut Fuller, thus creating a hole at cornerback. After doing that, they ignore him and he has just ONE catch? Can someone help me make sense of this?

Around FPC

NFL: Key Matchups: Chiefs Vs Bills

NFL: Chicago Bears: Has Nagy Seen The Light? Probably Not

Fantasy: Goal-Line Guide Week 5

NHL: Montreal Canadiens Carey Price Entering NHL/NHL Player Assistance Program

Wrestling: WWE Must Retire The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

PODCAST: The Eye Test For Two Ep 76: Fox Sports Rules Analyst Dean Blandino Joins

The Bears’ approach to their tight ends has to change

The Bears need to get the tight ends more involved in the offense. Tight ends make the quarterback’s life a lot easier. They are big targets and create mismatches, especially in the red zone. As a reminder, that was what happened with Graham’s only catch of the season. It came in Week 1. He made a catch inside the Rams’ 10-yard line. All-Pro defensive back Jalen Ramsey, who was having a big game up to that point, had no chance trying to defend that pass. Graham was just too big for him and made an easy catch.

For some reason, however, the Bears never went back to Graham or any tight end when they were deep in Rams territory.

What the Bears finally did do last week was use the tight ends, specifically Kmet, in blocking situations. Kmet made some big blocks that freed up the running backs to make big runs. That was interesting since coming out of college scouts considered Kmet more of a pass-catcher than a blocker.

Using the tight ends to help the offensive line block is great. The linemen surely appreciate that. However, they have to be involved in catching the ball as well. Kmet is an up-and-coming player and he will make big plays. Furthermore, the Bears gave up a lot to have Graham return. They didn’t give up an All-Pro cornerback so that Graham could sit on the bench.

If the tight ends are involved in the offense it creates havoc for the opposing defense. With the Bears’ speedy receivers they have to try to avoid a big play downfield. That opens things up for short and intermediate passes. The tight end can make a catch and just run over a smaller defensive back for a big gain. Also, the tight ends can surely help in converting first downs. As I mentioned, the Bears rank last on conversions on third down. Perhaps throwing a pass to the tight end helps. Kmet or Graham can bully the defensive back and make the catch, moving the chains.

Hopefully, Lazor calls more plays for the tight ends. It’s understandable that last week he concentrated more on Fields. By using the tight ends, however, Fields will definitely get better stats. Making Fields look good is the top priority for the Chicago Bears.