The Bears have a clear answer to fix their offensive problems and the perfect opportunity to implement it on Sunday night
All summer I was banging the drum for the Chicago Bears tight ends to be in for a big year under offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's tight end friendly scheme.In Week 1's win against the Tennessee Titans, the outcome was not what many were expecting going into the season. The most concerning thing was his usage of […]
All summer I was banging the drum for the Chicago Bears tight ends to be in for a big year under offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's tight end friendly scheme.
In Week 1's win against the Tennessee Titans, the outcome was not what many were expecting going into the season. The most concerning thing was his usage of Chicago's $50 million tight end Cole Kmet in the season opener.
Instead, it was veteran addition Gerald Everett who saw the majority of the snaps at the position in his first game since reuniting with Waldron. Here's how the usage was broken up between the two on Sunday:
Gerald Everett: 21 routes run on 34 offensive snaps (61% of offensive snaps)
Cole Kmet: 11 routes run on 27 offensive snaps (27%)
While speaking to the media on Wednesday, head coach Matt Eberflus elaborated more on the usage between Kmet and Everett and again focused more on the personnel decisions.
"We had 11 personnel where [Kmet] was in and then when [Everett] was in, so it was the way the rotation happened," Eberflus explained. "Certainly, do we want to get Cole involved in the game plan, mores catches, point of attack blocking, and all those things? Yes, yes, we do. But again, we're looking for a formula for success on offense. That's going to take a little bit of time in terms of distributing the ball to the skill more evenly, and we're working to do that this week."
When it was all said and done, Kmet finished the game with one target he turned into a four yard gain. Everett had 1 target for a loss of one yard. That's certainly not what we all expected out of the two within this offense and the lack of usage played a big role in the offensive struggles.
Looking at rookie Caleb Williams' passing chart from Week 1, the Bears quarterback did not have a single completion in the middle of the field and rarely attacked the intermediate areas. That's where Kmet and Everett should be thriving. Looking at the tape, nothing was even schemed up for either player in that area.
Clearly that was a major problem area for the Bears offense and using the tight ends more effectively can help covert some of the key situations where the unit struggled against the Titans. The good news is, the Bears now have the perfect opportunity to fix that in Week 2 against the Houston Texans.
Following the knee injury to rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze that will force him to be week-to-week, the Bears should implement more 2-TE sets in Week 2 that can put Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, Kmet and Everett all on the field at the same time.
Then it's all up to Waldron to scheme up plays designed to attack the middle of the field with his two big bodied targets while Allen and Moore work the outside. To keep the defense on their toes, Waldron can still mix in 11 personnel looks with Deandre Carter or Tyler Scott in Odunze's place as the third wide receiver.
Waldron proved in Seattle that he can make game changers out of multiple tight ends by scheming up plays designed for them to feast in the middle of the field. It's an easy fix that can get the offense back on track and it needs to be made going into Sunday.
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Could have been much worse.
