1st-and-10: Slow-starting rookies give Bears' offense room for growth

Seventh-round running back Kyle Monangai is the Bears’ rookie of the year through six games. Is that a good thing? 

Probably not, when the Bears’ top three draft picks in Ben Johnson’s first season as head coach were offensive players — tight end Colston Loveland (first round, 10th overall), wide receiver Luther Burden (2-39) and offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo (2-56). 

All four players — even Monangai — were considered potential breakout performers based on Johnson’s history in Detroit, where first-year offensive players became immediate contributors: running back Jahmyr Gibbs, tight end Sam LaPorta and wide receiver Jameson Williams. 

But in a formative offense — with a second-year quarterback — that’s probably a little bigger job than Johnson envisioned, the Bears rookies are still finding their way:

• Loveland has eight receptions for 78 yards (9.8 yards per catch) and no touchdowns. That’s nothing to panic over, but worth noting that Tyler Warren — the tight end most people thought the Bears would take in the first round — is thriving with the upstart Colts: 33 receptions for 439 yards (13.3 average) and three touchdowns. 

• Burden has shown flashes of excitement, but his overall production has been modest: 12 receptions for 172 yards (14.3 average) and one touchdown — a 65-yarder against the Cowboys. 

• Trapilo not only was unable to win the starting left tackle job, but the back-up job as well and was moved back to right tackle — his position at Boston College — where he’s a back-up to presumed mainstay Darnell Wright. 

• Monangai is the current head of the class. He had 13 carries for 81 yards and a touchdown in the Bears’ 26-14 victory over the Saints on Sunday — doubling his production in the first five games (22-81). 

Monangai has 35 carries for 162 yards (4.6 average) — more than the Patriots’ TreVeyon Henderson (43-153, 3.6 average), one of the players the Bears just missed getting in the draft. Then again, Monangai is not even the most productive back in the seventh round. The Commanders’ Jacory Croskey-Merritt — taken 12 picks after Monangai — has rushed for 377 yards (5.2 average) and four touchdowns in seven games. 

Be that as it may, that the Bears are 4-2 and 10th in the NFL in scoring without breakout production from their top three rookies bodes well for a Bears offense that historically disappoints but has actual hope under Johnson. 

“We still haven’t played the best football that we’re capable of playing yet,” Johnson said after the victory over the Commanders last week, and that holds true after a sloppy offensive performance that still produced 26 points against the Saints. 

The Bears aren’t 10th in the NFL in scoring because Rex Grossman is playing like an MVP candidate. They’re 10th in scoring with a lot of room for improvement — and a coach at the wheel who’s done this before. Those rookies — Loveland and Burden in particular — provide hope that this Bears offense is only getting started. 

2. On the other hand … the Bears had four sacks and seven quarterback hits on Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler, but little of the pressure came from the right side against Saints rookie left tackle Kelvin Banks, Jr., who has been the plug-and-play rookie the Bears were looking for in the draft. 

The Saints took Banks at No. 9, one spot before the Bears took Loveland at No. 10 — the price the Bears paid (three draft spots) for beating the Packers in Week 17 last season. 

That’s not quite Josh Giddey’s half-court shot costing the Bulls the chance to draft Cooper Flagg. But until Loveland becomes a key contributor — or until Theo Benedet establishes himself as an anchor — the Bears inability to get a dedicated left tackle in the draft looms as a regret for Bears general manager Ryan Poles. 

3. The Ben Johnson Effect: Developing Bears quarterbacks have had clunkers before, but rarely do the Bears score 26 points on offense when that happens — though playing the Saints’ 25th-ranked defense surely was a factor Sunday.

Caleb Williams’ 61.7 passer rating is the lowest to produce 25 or more offensive points since 1989, when Mike Tomczak’s 53.7 rating still produced 31 points in a 38-7 rout of the Vikings at Soldier Field. Tomczak completed 10-of-26 passes for 142 yards, one touchdown and one interception that day. 

Since the beginning of the Jay Cutler era in 2009, when Bears quarterbacks have been in that bad-but-not-horrendous range (a passer rating of 55-65), the Bears have averaged 13.4 offensive points per game. When Williams was in that range last season, the Bear's offense scored nine, 15 and three points. Coaching matters.

4. Fun Fact: The Bears have scored 21 or more points in their first six games for the first time since 1995 (when they finished eighth in scoring with Erik Kramer at quarterback, but missed the playoffs at 9-7) and only the second time since 1958. 

It’s the first time the Bears have scored 21 or more points in six consecutive games at any point of the season since 2018, when they had a streak of nine straight under Matt Nagy. 

5. Believe It Or Not: At this time last season, the Bears also were 4-2, and 12th in the NFL in scoring. They were coming off victories over the Rams (24-18), Panthers (36-10) and Jaguars (35-16) — scoring five or more offensive touchdowns in back-to-back games for the first time since 1956. Williams was coming off three consecutive games with a 100-plus passer rating — the first Bears quarterback to do that in three victories since Jay Cutler in 2009.

Three weeks later offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired. Eighteen days after that, coach Matt Eberflus was fired. Life comes at you fast in the NFL. 

6. Caleb Williams’ inaccuracy is a red flag until it isn’t. Williams completed 15-of-26 passes against the Saints (57.7%), the third consecutive game he’s been below 60%. 

Opposing quarterbacks have completed 68.5% of their passes against the Ravens’ defense this season — including 72% (85 of 118) over the past four games. 

The Ravens also are last in the NFL in scoring defense (32.3 points per game), but held the Rams to 17 in their last game. Last year the Ravens’ defense improved dramatically after their Week 14 bye — allowing an NFL-low 10.8 points after allowing 24.5 (23rd) before the bye. 

7. The Broncos set an NFL record with 33 fourth-quarter points after being held scoreless for three quarters to beat the Giants 33-32 at Mile High Stadium. The closest the Bears have come to that was in 1994 against the Eagles, when they trailed 30-0 in the fourth quarter and scored 22 unanswered points to get within a touchdown with 3:35 to go (it was the first year of the two-point conversion). But they never got the ball back and lost, 30-22. 

In 2014, the Bears trailed the 49ers 20-7 early in the fourth quarter in the first regular-season NFL game at Levi’s Stadium before Cutler threw three touchdown passes (two to Brandon Marshall, one to Martellus Bennett) for a 28-20 victory.

In 2020 season opener, the Bears trailed the Lions 23-6 early in the fourth quarter at Ford Field before Mitch Trubisky threw three touchdown passes (to Jimmy Graham, Javon Wims and Anthony Miller) for a 27-23 victory. 

8a. Despite a 4-2 record and four-game winning streak, the Bears are 6.5-point underdogs against the 1-5 Ravens on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. 

That doesn’t happen often, but that line presumes Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson will play after missing two games with a hamstring injury (the Ravens were 1-3 with Jackson, for what it’s worth). And All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith, the former Bear,  is expected to return after also missing the last two games with a hamstring injury. The Ravens also are coming off a bye — they’re 14-3 after the bye under John Harbaugh, including 8-1 since 2016.

It's not the first time the Bears have been dogs with a winning record against a team with a losing record. In 2010, the Bears were 5-3, but were one-point underdogs at home against the 3-5 Vikings with Brett Favre. The Bears won 27-13, with Cutler throwing three touchdowns passes — to Greg Olsen, Devin Hester and Kellen Davis.

8b. This will be Roquan's first game against the Bears since Poles traded him to the Ravens midway through the 2022 season after an impasse over a long-term contract. Smith signed a five-year, $100 million extension after the 2022 regular season. The Bears received a 2023 second-round draft pick (defensive tackle Gervon Dexter), a 2023 fifth-round draft pick (linebacker Noah Sewell) and linebacker A.J. Klein (who played in two games with the Bears and was waived.

The winner of the trade is debatable. Smith, who never even made the Pro Bowl in four full seasons with the Bears, has been a first-team All-Pro in all three seasons with the Ravens — but he's a better fit in their 3-4 defense than Matt Eberflus' 4-3. The Bears in effect, acquired not only Dexter and Sewell, but also signed linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards with the cap space they didn't use on Roquan.

9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen had 11 receptions for 119 yards and a touchdown in a 38-24 loss to the Colts. 

Allen has 44 receptions for 435 yards and four touchdowns this season. He had 70 receptions for 744 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games with the Bears last season. 

10. Bear-ometer — 9-8: at Ravens (L); at Bengals (W); vs. Giants (W); at Vikings (L); vs. Steelers (W); at Eagles (L); at Packers (L); vs. Browns (W); vs. Packers (W); at 49ers (L); vs. Lions (L).

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