As quarterback Caleb Williams and the Bears’ offense sputter, they aren’t getting much return on their extravagant expenditure to surround him with skill talent. In their 19-3 loss to the Patriots on Sunday, no player put up more than 65 yards on offense.
They shelled out $50 million on a four-year contract extension for tight end Cole Kmet, but seem to have forgotten he exists. Kmet got four targets and caught two passes for 13 yards. He has gotten five targets over the last three games.
Their four-year, $110 million deal for DJ Moore has yielded 44.2 yards per game and a lot of bad body language. Moore caught three passes for 24 yards.
No. 9 overall pick Rome Odunze caught three passes for 23 yards, and $23.1 million addition Keenan Allen caught five for 44.
The Bears bowed out of the Saquon Barkley bidding and opted for D’Andre Swift, whose thumb seems stuck on the spin-move button and managed 59 yards rushing at 3.7 per carry, plus one catch for six yards.
“A lot of those things are just how the flow of the offense is going,” said Kmet, who had the team’s lone catch for a third-down conversion. “We haven’t been up to standard the last three weeks, and that’s just what happens. There’s other guys in here that aren’t used to what’s going on, either. I’m sure if you talk to Keenan, DJ, Rome, D’Andre, those guys are probably a little frustrated, too.
“When it got going a certain way, it was just hard to get out of the funk of it. Even when we were moving the ball, it didn’t really get flowing how it really should’ve. Really just been in a funk the last three weeks and we’ve got to find a way out of it.”
Moore and Allen each are on pace for the least receiving yardage of their career. Odunze leads the team with 414 yards on 28 catches.
Offensive line trouble
The Bears went into Sunday with a shaky offensive line and allowed 13 quarterback hits, including nine sacks. Then things got worse.
When left guard Teven Jenkins exited with a right ankle injury in the second quarter, the Bears were down to one of their first-string linemen in his intended position: center Coleman Shelton.
With backup Larry Borom at left tackle in place of Braxton Jones and right guard Matt Pryor moving to right tackle because Darnell Wright was hurt, the Bears had Doug Kramer in for Jenkins and veteran Ryan Bates at right guard. Bates had been out since the opener before the team activated him from injured reserve Saturday.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus didn’t give specifics on Jenkins’ injury, but he had his foot in an air cast after the game.
Davis scratched late
The Bears announced three hours before kickoff that guard Nate Davis was out with a back injury. Davis was a full participant in practice all week and hasn’t been on an injury report since late September.
The Bears have long seemed done with Davis anyway and haven’t played him since Oct. 6. Since signing Davis to a three-year, $30 million deal, he has started 13 of a possible 26 games. The team can get out of his contract at the end of the season with a $2 million dead-salary-cap hit, which is negligible since the cap likely will top $270 million, and cut his total pay on the deal to $20.4 million.
This and that
– The Bears’ lone takeaway was an interception by linebacker T.J. Edwards in the first quarter. He has seven takeaways in two seasons.
– When the Patriots went up 19-3 with two minutes left, it was their largest lead in a game this season.
– Odunze is on pace for 782 yards, which would be the most by a Bears rookie since Willie Gault in 1983.