Windy City Gridiron
WCG’s lead draft analyst predicts the stats of each of the Bears’ top offensive playmakers.
With free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft in the rearview mirror, the Bears’ offensive roster has taken shape coming into the new season.
There are plenty of major changes in Chicago’s offense, and it starts in the coaching staff. Ben Johnson has replaced Matt Eberflus as the Bears’ head coach, and he replaces the rotation of Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown as the primary offensive play-caller.
He has brought in his own offensive staff, many of whom having ties to the Dan Campbell (Johnson’s head coach in Detroit) or Sean Payton (Campbell’s head coach in New Orleans) coaching trees.
The Bears’ personnel is also different. The interior offensive line figures to be entirely different at all three spots. Keenan Allen and Gerald Everett are gone, and the likes of Luther Burden, Colston Loveland and Kyle Monangai replace them.
Needless to say, the Bears’ offense should look a lot different in 2025.
I wanted to project what type of numbers Chicago’s offensive weapons will put up this season. Using Johnson’s past tendencies and my own analysis of the Bears’ individual players, I have decided to whip up some rough projections on what the stat sheet could look like for key players by the end of the year.
To start, I took a look at the Lions’ reception share percentage from 2024:
Before making any additional changes, these are the rough parameters I set for myself in terms of the Bears’ reception allocation, making slight changes as needed to better reflect the skill level of Chicago’s personnel:
Between Johnson’s three years as the Lions’ offensive play-caller, the team averaged 379.6 passing completions per year. His 2023 and 2024 seasons both saw Detroit finish with 390 completions or more, and while I won’t have the Bears reach those numbers, I’ll stick with the rough average of 379 for my Chicago projections.
These numbers below leave roughly 33 receptions up for grabs between the likes of Olamide Zaccheaus, Devin Duvernay, Durham Smythe, Tyler Scott, Collin Johnson, Travis Homer, and whichever skill weapons find themselves rotating through the 53-man roster. I will also allocate 267 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns between this bunch. In honesty, most of those yards and receptions will likely go to Zaccheaus.
I have the team totaling 4,061 passing yards, which would be a downgrade from what the Lions had with Ben Johnson, but an upgrade from what the Bears...
