Speed Kills, Outside-of-the-Box Help for Trubisky, One Surprising Wims Stat, and Other Bullets

Sep 08, 2018

One more sleep until the Bears and Packers. It’s going to feel like Christmas. Bearsmas? Can that be a thing? Maybe we’ll sleep on it.

Anyone else excited about getting Tarik Cohen more looks in 2018?

Is there anything @TarikCohen can't do??

The answer you're looking for is "absolutely not." pic.twitter.com/FIRGZBW8gh

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 8, 2018

Cohen played on 26 percent of the Bears’ offensive snaps during the team’s last trip to Lambeau Field, but the then-rookie made the most of his 18 offensive snaps. Sure, it came in a loss, but Cohen rushed six times for 24 yards and caught four passes for 24. Ten touches and 48 yards isn’t much to write home about, except the Bears didn’t get Cohen 10 touches often enough for him to display his skills. Ideally, that changes starting tomorrow night in Green Bay.

The idea of Cohen lined up on one side of the field and Taylor Gabriel on the other truly piques my interest. Patrick Finley of the Sun-Times writes about the possibility of those two being on the field together, which is something that could cause havoc against defenses. Cohen and Gabriel are two of the league’s fastest players, both of whom have a unique ability to make plays in the open field in a variety of ways. It’s fitting that both are teammates in Chicago after neither was used to the best of their abilities by their respective former offensive coordinators.

I think Bears OC Mark Helfrich has the right idea:

Helfrich on explosiveness of @TarikCohen & @TGdadon1: “The speed kills mantra… that’s a fact.”

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 6, 2018

Bears offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said of receiver Taylor Gabriel: "The mantra 'speed kills,' that's a fact. … If you can just start with that threat in his stance, everything else opens up."
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) September 6, 2018

Here’s a worthwhile observation from PFF’s Mark Chichester, who notes that Javon Wims racked up 132 receiving yards from the slot this summer. It’s the most among wideouts this year and the fourth most by a rookie during the preseason. Wims was a seventh-round pick and his highlights often showed him making plays on the boundaries. It was easy to dream about a go-up-and-get-it guy (GUAGI!), but Wims himself said he wanted to prove he was more than that. He certainly did during the preseason, though I’m not sure where he’ll get snaps now that the regular season is here.

I’m looking forward to the Bears running more offensive plays as much as anything. The Bears averaged a hair over 58 offensive snaps per game last year, which was the second lowest average in the league in 2017. You can’t win if you don’t score and you can’t score if you don’t have the ball. It almost makes you think that it was a minor miracle that the team scored at all. Kansas City averaged 68 snaps during the final month of the season. Fittingly enough, when Matt Nagy had taken over the play calling. More plays, more points. Simple enough.

Mitch Trubisky has quite the to-do list to conquer this weekend:

Busy man. pic.twitter.com/H7aPlUOOxX

— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) September 8, 2018

If the Bears are going to score more points and win more games than they did last year, it’s going to start with production from the quarterback. The Chicago Tribune’s Rich Campbell reports the Bears are going outside-of-the-box to help Mitch Trubisky reach new heights by bringing in Wall Street Journal leadership columnist (yep, that’s a real thing) Sam Walker. Leadership from the QB1 spot has been lacking for quite some time in Chicago, so anything that could help create a new culture of winning should be embraced. If you’re the Bears, you can’t leave any stone un-turned as you search for success.

And if Trubisky is going to be successful, one of his new main targets will need to be hauling in passes and making plays down the field. Allen Robinson is at the top of the list of receivers who need to be excellent for this season to go well. Robinson was a Pro Bowl player in 2015 when he caught 80 passes, gained 1,400 receiving yards, and scored 14 touchdowns. Even when he had a “down” year in 2016, his numbers (73 catches, 883 yards, six TDs) were better than anything the Bears’ collection of pass-catchers were capable of putting up.

After a six-month process, Eddie Goldman has a new deal with the Bears that keeps him in the middle of the defense for the next five seasons. On top of the financial stability his new contract brings, Goldman gets to grow with a young defensive core that is coming off a top-10 season. You can check out Goldman’s brief meeting with the media below:

Three. Straight. Days. of full participating for Khalil Mack, Leonard Floyd, and Roquan Smith, per Mark Grote of 670 The Score/Bears Radio. The trio will have to come up with some big plays if the Bears are actually going to upset the Packers.

Funny feelings can go either way:

As I was driving to GB before the 2006 season opener I was sure the Bears were going to win. Have a similar feeling about the Bears-Pack game this Sunday.
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) September 7, 2018

written by

Luis C. Medina

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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