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If you’re Chicago Bears head coach John Fox, what can you hang your hat on with your 0-3 team that now has been beaten badly in prime time two weeks running?
Your starting quarterback, Jay Cutler, is out. Your starting running back, Jeremy Langford, left Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on a cart. You can’t get your best receiver, Alshon Jeffery, the ball enough.
Your defense has now lost to quarterbacks making their eighth, second and third NFL starts, respectively, two of them rookies. Those quarterbacks threw one interception between them in 97 attempts. The Bears face quarterbacks who were top-three picks in eight of the next 10 games, all of them with 20 or more starts.
Bears head coach John Fox, middle, has very little to hang his hat on (AP). The offense has scored 14, 14 and 17 points. The defense has allowed 23, 29 and 31. It’s getting worse on the field, not better.
If you’re GM Ryan Pace, what are you thinking about your past two top-10 picks? Kevin White doesn’t seem to catch the ball all that well (or do much with it when he does catch it), and Leonard Floyd has been the target of every team’s run game in his direction. Your second-round center, Cody Whitehair, is struggling at the one offensive line position he didn’t play in 50-plus starts in college.
Right now, Pace is overseeing a roster whose greatest strength and financial commitment is at offensive guard. Ask the Tennessee Titans how that worked out a few years ago when they took a similar approach. There’s no developmental QB on the roster. Jeffery is a free agent again, intent on getting paid. Your big-money defender, Pernell McPhee, is out indefinitely. The roster depth, decimated by injury, is shaky at best.
Maybe the Bears will rebound the next three games against teams with a combined 2-7 record; two of those games are at home, too. Maybe Cutler comes back. Maybe White comes on. Maybe Jeffery’s knee holds up and he gets going again. Maybe Jordan Howard, one of the few bright spots Sunday night, runs with his new opportunity …
And maybe that’s too many maybes to feel too good about all of these things coming to fruition.
Are you rebuilding and moving on from Cutler and Jeffery next season? Fine —*then who is replacing them? It’s an endless hamster wheel of questions and possibilities, few of which offer much hope.
Just imagine how bad things might be locally if this city didn’t have the Chicago Cubs and Blackhawks providing some anesthesia.
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Your starting quarterback, Jay Cutler, is out. Your starting running back, Jeremy Langford, left Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on a cart. You can’t get your best receiver, Alshon Jeffery, the ball enough.
Your defense has now lost to quarterbacks making their eighth, second and third NFL starts, respectively, two of them rookies. Those quarterbacks threw one interception between them in 97 attempts. The Bears face quarterbacks who were top-three picks in eight of the next 10 games, all of them with 20 or more starts.
If you’re GM Ryan Pace, what are you thinking about your past two top-10 picks? Kevin White doesn’t seem to catch the ball all that well (or do much with it when he does catch it), and Leonard Floyd has been the target of every team’s run game in his direction. Your second-round center, Cody Whitehair, is struggling at the one offensive line position he didn’t play in 50-plus starts in college.
Right now, Pace is overseeing a roster whose greatest strength and financial commitment is at offensive guard. Ask the Tennessee Titans how that worked out a few years ago when they took a similar approach. There’s no developmental QB on the roster. Jeffery is a free agent again, intent on getting paid. Your big-money defender, Pernell McPhee, is out indefinitely. The roster depth, decimated by injury, is shaky at best.
Maybe the Bears will rebound the next three games against teams with a combined 2-7 record; two of those games are at home, too. Maybe Cutler comes back. Maybe White comes on. Maybe Jeffery’s knee holds up and he gets going again. Maybe Jordan Howard, one of the few bright spots Sunday night, runs with his new opportunity …
And maybe that’s too many maybes to feel too good about all of these things coming to fruition.
The #Bears will host the #Lions next week. They haven’t beat Detroit since Lovie Smith’s final game as head coach in 2012.
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) September 26, 2016
The Bears are a flawed team. Those home games coming up? The Bears are 3-14 at Soldier Field the past two seasons. What we thought about the roster in the preseason is coming true, but in a worst-case kind of way. Even if they win two or three of the next three games, they still face the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings each twice, and those look like glaring mismatches right now.— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) September 26, 2016
Are you rebuilding and moving on from Cutler and Jeffery next season? Fine —*then who is replacing them? It’s an endless hamster wheel of questions and possibilities, few of which offer much hope.
Just imagine how bad things might be locally if this city didn’t have the Chicago Cubs and Blackhawks providing some anesthesia.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!Follow @Eric_Edholm