The NFL season is just about 70 days away and that means fantasy football is just around the corner. It’s late June and just about the right time to start thinking about your strategy for your upcoming teams and leagues.
While I prepare my fantasy rankings for the whole league, I decided to break down the Chicago Bears individual player preview as well.
The Bears come in with an offensive attack that could potentially explode. They have the weapons on offense to put up big numbers even with a new offense installed under new head coach Marc Trestman.
Let’s take a look at the Bears quarterback situation fantasy-wise.
Quarterbacks
Jay Cutler comes into this season with another offensive playbook to learn. The good thing is that Cutler has a strong arm and weapons at his disposal. While Cutler might not always be the best quarterback in the league every year, he’s a solid fantasy quarterback points wise.
In 15 games last season Cutler finished with 15 touchdown passes and 3,033 yards. It’s the fifth time in Cutlers seven seasons he’s topped 3,000 yards. Adding Brandon Marshall last off-season really helped Cutler and he seemed to target Marshall as much as possible.
With Marshall added to the receiving core and a young Alshon Jeffery potentially ready to break out, the Bears also added a nice piece at the tight end position by signing Martellus Bennett.
Bennett gives Cutler a safe option in case he is in trouble and provides another red zone threat for the strong-armed quarterback.
With a solid receiving back Matt Forte in the backfield, Cutler has targets all over the field. One of his more reliable options has been running back Matt Forte who is one of the better receiving backs in the league.
Forte provides a safe check down cushion for Cutler but also can explode for a big play.
The one thing that hurts Cutlers fantasy value is his turnovers. But he can make up for them with a good amount of touchdowns this season.
The problem for the Bears is keeping Cutler healthy. In 2011 he missed the final six games of the year due to a broken thumb. Last year Cutler suffered a concussion which caused him to miss the whole second half against the Texans and the following week against the 49ers.
That backup situation in Chicago could be better, but it’s not the worse in the league. The Bears lost backup Jason Campbell to the Browns in the off-season but kept Josh McCown.
Campbell didn’t show too much promise in a few games last season but he also inherited a situation where the offensive line was playing terrible.
McCown is familiar with some Bears offensive weapons but like Cutler will have to learn a new system as well.
The Bears hope Cutler doesn’t go down with an injury again this season and if it happens they could be in trouble backup wise. I don’t see much from the backups this year fantasy wise, but unless you have an absolute emergency at your quarterback spot, I’d avoid McCown.
2013 Projections:
Jay Cutler – 3,205 yards, 21 touchdowns, 16 interceptions.
The Read-Option and the Evolving Defensive Response
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