Chicago Bears: Expect Changes To The Offense After Mini-bye

After the Chicago Bears played on Thursday night, they don’t play again until Monday night. With the time off, expect changes to the offense.

The Chicago Bears played the first game in Week 6. They don’t play again until the final game in Week 7. That gave them a mini-bye week to work things out.

That could be a good thing or a bad thing. It gives them 11 days to ruminate about another frustrating loss.

The game was supposed to be one that charged the Bears and give them some momentum this season. Instead, they lost and it could send the season spiraling.

On the other hand, the time off could help. It gives them an opportunity to look at what is working and not working. Whatever isn’t working they could work in changes, whether it is changing personnel (benching players and promoting others) or play-calling. Additionally, there could be some players who haven’t been in due to injuries who can now heal up and make a contribution to the season.

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Let’s hope the team makes the changes needed for the Chicago Bears to try to get the offense to improve. I don’t mean they can suddenly become Super Bowl contenders. They just have to show some improvement. They need to get the young players developed and ready for next season and beyond.

Here are some changes and players who could step in and help.

Shuffle the offensive line

The Chicago Bears’ offensive line has struggled once again. It seems like that is the recurring theme for more than a decade.

The line has given up 23 sacks so far this season. That is on pace for 65 this season. Everyone went bonkers last season when they allowed 58 sacks.

The line had to be shuffled due to injuries. Lucas Patrick was supposed to be the center. However, he broke the thumb on his snapping hand early on in training camp. He recovered but his hand hasn’t been strong enough to snap.

As a result, the Bears had to use Sam Mustipher as center. That has not worked out at all. Mustipher has struggled all season there. He struggled as well in that position last season.

If Patrick’s hand is strong enough he should take over at center. Head coach Matt Eberflus vowed to look at the roster and make the changes needed. This is one of them. With Cody Whitehair injured, the Bears need someone there. They have to determine if Mustipher is able to move over to guard for a few weeks until Whitehair returns. Without having to worry about snapping the ball, Mustipher could be a better fit at guard (at least temporarily) than at center.

Could there be an addition at wide receiver?

The wide receivers have struggled to get open. Some of the sacks the offensive line allowed were a result of that. Even the combination of Justin Fields and Darnell Mooney had a difficult time early on. They are now heating up, however.

The same cannot be said of the other receivers. While Mooney has 33 targets this season, the next highest total is 13 by Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis.

There could be help coming, though. N’Keal Harry, acquired in a trade from the New England Patriots just before training camp, suffered a high ankle sprain and hasn’t played this season. He was taken off injured reserve last week. That activated a 21-day period in which the team could decide whether to activate him on the roster or shut him down for the season.

Harry was a full participant in practices last week but he didn’t play. Perhaps with more practices under his belt and the extra time between games he could be ready this week. Hopefully, he is ready because the Bears could use a 6-foot-4, 225-pound receiver.

The Bears will also have Byron Pringle back, but he has to sit out one more game before he is eligible to play. Having him and Harry playing gives Fields more and better targets and that may mean an increase in the passing attack’s performance.

Fields needs to adjust his thinking

Another reason for the sacks given up this season falls on Fields’ shoulder. There are times when there are open receivers but they aren’t wide open.

Playing at Ohio State with elite receivers, Fields had wide-open receivers all the time. That does not happen as much at the professional level. The margin of error now is much smaller.

On the final play by the Bears against the Commanders, he threw late to Mooney. Mooney was open but not by a wide margin. By hesitating, he did not give Mooney a chance to make the catch in the end zone for the win. The throw ended up being rushed and the space Mooney had closed up quickly. He ended up falling short by inches and Chicago lost.

There have been times when his receiver was open but still covered. Fields has to pull the trigger and feel confident in his ability to get the ball where it needs to be and that the receiver will make a play. Even if the receiver doesn’t make the catch, if Fields can make the throw it is good for him. The coaches want to see if he can make those throws. Once the ball leaves his hands his job is done. Remember, this season is to see Fields (and the other young players) develop.

Fields needs to look at the film and see where he missed open receivers. Once he makes those throws he could be such a more deadly quarterback.

Use the time off to improve play-calling

While the talent on the field isn’t as good as it should be, the play-calling has also been a reason for some of the offensive struggles.

Luke Getsy is the offensive coordinator. His previous job was as the quarterbacks coach with the Green Bay Packers. He worked with Aaron Rodgers so his job was a little bit easier.

With the Chicago Bears, Getsy has a quarterback who needs development. He also doesn’t have the tools he had with Green Bay.

It seems that Getsy wants to have Fields become more of a pocket passer. This is the same problem former head coach Matt Nagy had with Mitchell Trubisky (and later with Fields).

Fields is more of a mobile quarterback. It doesn’t mean that he just wants to run, however. It means that he needs to roll out more. That buys some time which helps the offensive line.

Getsy has to realize what he has in FIelds and play the calls accordingly. He has called some of the plays that worked. The problem is that he sometimes goes away from those plays in order to keep Fields in the pocket.

Chicago Bears Nation had such hopes after the game against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 5. Sure, they lost. However, Fields had an excellent game, especially in the second half. He completed 71 percent of his passes. Also, he looked very comfortable. There were short and intermediate passes thrown that got him into a rhythm. Once he got into that rhythm, he got hot.

The next week, Getsy went away from that. There weren’t as many high-percentage passes called. For example, Fields and David Montgomery had success with the screen pass against the Vikings. Two of those passes resulted in a total of 51 yards (one for 30 and the other for 21). Montgomery had a total of four targets and he caught them all for 62 yards.

The next week, however, Montgomery was targeted just once (he caught it for 13 yards). He is averaging 11.3 yards per catch. Why not use him more?

We need to keep in mind that this is the first time Getsy is calling plays. Hopefully, he also looks at the film and see what is working and what isn’t so he can adjust his game plan and improve.