Windy City Gridiron
Welcome back, brave soul. Just two weeks into the season, hope seems to be heading towards an early hibernation.
Before I dive into my musings about the 52-21 implosion in Detroit, I’m channeling my inner Sean Maguire from Good Will Hunting, and whispering a sincere, “It’s not your fault.” Sure, you masochistically choose pain virtually every week, but the state of your favorite team is not your fault.
The fault rests squarely with the braintrust at 1000 Football Drive. Four-year rebuilds aren’t a thing in the NFL. Anyone who categorizes the team that way has just found a polite way to say, “we’re still bad.” And I’m likely being polite as putting a four-year horizon on the state of the beloved’s bad-ness.
Alright, back to the lecture at hand. The intent of this series is to leverage film and data to help inform trends and patterns about the team, highlighting positives — yes, there were some despite the outcome — and negatives to find signal among a lot of noise. Which players are progressing in this new regime and scheme? While which pieces are happily collecting paychecks and perpetuating the losing culture?
Let’s get it.
Rome Odunze is playing like a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver. Through two weeks, Odunze ranks:
Odunze’s connection with Caleb Williams is evident and he’s a threat at every level of the field. Head coach Ben Johnson aligned him at multiple spots — split end, flanker and slot — to scheme different coverage matchups. His blocking technique needs to improve. The Bears are asking all of their receivers to contribute as blockers both on the perimeter and on whams against the end man on the line of scrimmage to try and create creases in the run game. But his second-year ascension is in full flight.
Joe Thuney is a force. He’s living up to his reputation and is anchoring a unit with 60% new pieces. “Duo” has become the Bears’ go-to scheme in the run game, which requires double teams at the point of attack. Against the Lions he was stout at the point of attack to secure first-level blocks while making his way to the second-level looking for more work. In pass pro, he has vice grips for hands and can easily re-anchor against bull rushes or laterally mirror.
Caleb Williams took a big step forward against Detroit. Was the interception both a terrible decision and a miscommunication with a receiver — something that’s happened multiple times through two games —...
