In the first week of the madness that we call the NFL season we got our first glimpse of Chicago Bears football. We saw what we all knew Anthony Miller could be, as he erupted in the huge 4th quarter comeback, getting it done on third down, and catching the game winning touchdown. We also saw vintage Mitch Tribusky, as he was great down the stretch for the Bears. Other than these highlights I saw some concerning topics such as the tight end situation, the safety situation, and the nickelback situation.
We saw a miscommunication between rookie tight end, Cole Kmet and Mitchell Trubisky. From my view it looked like Kmet failed to beat the zone for an easy touchdown, and when Mitchell threw the ball his way, he tried to lead him away from the safety and towards the soft spot in the zone. This botched TD brings me back to concerns about Kmet, in college he was never really incorporated into the Notre Dame passing attack, which is concerning. Why have such a big role cut out for a guy who has such little experience in the passing game? I don’t want to be the guy to say that we should give up on rookies, but from what I saw, Kmet should have no role in the passing game and should pass the torch to Demitrius Harris, who could’ve had a touchdown on Sunday if it weren’t for a bad ball from Trubisky. That being said, things need to change in the tight end room, minimize Kmets role until he shows some potential on the big stage.
This now brings me to my next topic, the safety situation.
We only got to see seven snaps of Deon Bush and on those seven snaps we saw a huge difference from the standard 3-4 nickel look to the 3-4 big dime that Bush and Gipson played. Pagno saw Danny Trevathan playing with an obvious target on his back and brought out a big dime package where Deon Bush would take on tight end TJ Hockenson, who looked great and gave the Bears problems all game. I’m not calling for Gipson to be benched just yet, but from what I have seen from Bush has been very promising and definitely deserving of playing time, whether its from dime or nickel.
Is Buster Skrine now a concern for this defense?
Skrine, who is now in his second season as a Bear has looked very hot and cold in his first two years and if he continues to underwhelm, I think Kindle Vildor is deserving of consideration to take over if things get ugly. Skrine just hasn’t looked the same since Tae Adams did him multiple times in the Green Bay game last year.
Image: TSN
