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If the Bears are going to give Mitch another shot at this thing, and his recent play has made that more likely and reasonable, I want to see Ryan Pace actually commit to ensuring that he is effective and can produce.
I think that this season has made some things painfully clear to the Bears and I need to see out GM react to the reality of what we have and what we are.
1. Mitch is not the pure pocket passer that they had hoped
They tried. No one can fault them for not trying to realize Pace's vision for Mitch, but the truth is that is not who he is and the longer they try and force it the worse it got. Mitch can play from the pocket, but he comes alive when he is running around making plays and not over thinking. Patrick Mannelly said it best on The Score, he said that Mitch is not a stand back there and count to 4 and let everything develop QB, he is a count to 2 QB and then go do something QB. We are seeing around the league that you do not need to be a count to 4 QB for your team to be successful. The Bears are in the playoffs with this version of Mitch and they are missing the playoffs with the depressed robot version from earlier in the season. Do what Mitch does well and slowly add things. Stop trying to force 202 down everyone's throats.
Let Mitch be Mitch.
2. Mitch is not going to raise everyone around him consistently
We know Mitch is not in the "overcome" issues category of QBs, which is fine because 3/4 of the NFL is not in that category and those guys are rare. So, lets stop asking him to overcome serious personnel issues on offense and build the talent around him. Lets make sure that there is competent TE play. Lets move the line from okay to good. The Bears go into most games with a personnel disadvantage in the trenches and that asks your OL to do a ton. Buffalo, Baltimore, SF, are all proving that you do not need a HOF pocket passer to win games if you can physically control the game on offense. The Bears cannot and a huge part of the issues early in the season is that they just got ass whooped at OL and TE. There is no surprise that they have improved when some guys like Shaheen, Long, Massie, Burton all hit the bench.
Improve the offensive personnel.
3. Mitch does better when he is not getting pressured
The OL is not good enough. They have been good for a couple of weeks and Mitch has come alive, but early in the season they were horrendous and it only made Mitch more horrendous. Mitch cannot overcome poor OL play. The Bears can no longer be okay with "average". If they want to maximize what they get from Mitch and Nagy's offense, or really any QB for that matter, they need the line to move towards dominant. They need to be able to run the ball, they need play action to work, they need Mitch to be able to use good mechanics and step into throws, that all comes with getting better players up front. Pace should know this, New Orleans has had one of the best OLs in the league the entire Brees era. Armstead, Ramzcyk, Warford, Peat, McCoy, all highly drafted and well paid and really good. Before that it was Bushrod, Nicks, Unger, Evans, Strief, again a top 5 unit in the NFL.
The OL can no longer be average, solid, good enough.
4. Enough of the midgets
There is a world where Mitch can take advantage of the small, fast guys in space, but it is not this world. He has struggled to get the ball to Gabriel down field, Gabriel has generated next to no YAC for the Bears. The same can be said for Cohen, but he is more of a threat from the backfield. All of a sudden Wims comes in and Mitch is able to consistently find him, Wims generates some YAC, the offense looks better. Mitch is not a pin point passer, shocking I know, get some dudes on the field with size and catch radius that can make up for his lack of pin point accuracy. This is not only about Mitch, on the Miller RPO TD you saw Patterson absolutely stone the DB that had the best chance of getting Miller. Well Patterson is 6'3" 230lbs and you saw it there and on his big YAC run later, that size only helps in the screen game and the YAC game.
Give him bigger targets and more margin for era.
I think that this season has made some things painfully clear to the Bears and I need to see out GM react to the reality of what we have and what we are.
1. Mitch is not the pure pocket passer that they had hoped
They tried. No one can fault them for not trying to realize Pace's vision for Mitch, but the truth is that is not who he is and the longer they try and force it the worse it got. Mitch can play from the pocket, but he comes alive when he is running around making plays and not over thinking. Patrick Mannelly said it best on The Score, he said that Mitch is not a stand back there and count to 4 and let everything develop QB, he is a count to 2 QB and then go do something QB. We are seeing around the league that you do not need to be a count to 4 QB for your team to be successful. The Bears are in the playoffs with this version of Mitch and they are missing the playoffs with the depressed robot version from earlier in the season. Do what Mitch does well and slowly add things. Stop trying to force 202 down everyone's throats.
Let Mitch be Mitch.
2. Mitch is not going to raise everyone around him consistently
We know Mitch is not in the "overcome" issues category of QBs, which is fine because 3/4 of the NFL is not in that category and those guys are rare. So, lets stop asking him to overcome serious personnel issues on offense and build the talent around him. Lets make sure that there is competent TE play. Lets move the line from okay to good. The Bears go into most games with a personnel disadvantage in the trenches and that asks your OL to do a ton. Buffalo, Baltimore, SF, are all proving that you do not need a HOF pocket passer to win games if you can physically control the game on offense. The Bears cannot and a huge part of the issues early in the season is that they just got ass whooped at OL and TE. There is no surprise that they have improved when some guys like Shaheen, Long, Massie, Burton all hit the bench.
Improve the offensive personnel.
3. Mitch does better when he is not getting pressured
The OL is not good enough. They have been good for a couple of weeks and Mitch has come alive, but early in the season they were horrendous and it only made Mitch more horrendous. Mitch cannot overcome poor OL play. The Bears can no longer be okay with "average". If they want to maximize what they get from Mitch and Nagy's offense, or really any QB for that matter, they need the line to move towards dominant. They need to be able to run the ball, they need play action to work, they need Mitch to be able to use good mechanics and step into throws, that all comes with getting better players up front. Pace should know this, New Orleans has had one of the best OLs in the league the entire Brees era. Armstead, Ramzcyk, Warford, Peat, McCoy, all highly drafted and well paid and really good. Before that it was Bushrod, Nicks, Unger, Evans, Strief, again a top 5 unit in the NFL.
The OL can no longer be average, solid, good enough.
4. Enough of the midgets
There is a world where Mitch can take advantage of the small, fast guys in space, but it is not this world. He has struggled to get the ball to Gabriel down field, Gabriel has generated next to no YAC for the Bears. The same can be said for Cohen, but he is more of a threat from the backfield. All of a sudden Wims comes in and Mitch is able to consistently find him, Wims generates some YAC, the offense looks better. Mitch is not a pin point passer, shocking I know, get some dudes on the field with size and catch radius that can make up for his lack of pin point accuracy. This is not only about Mitch, on the Miller RPO TD you saw Patterson absolutely stone the DB that had the best chance of getting Miller. Well Patterson is 6'3" 230lbs and you saw it there and on his big YAC run later, that size only helps in the screen game and the YAC game.
Give him bigger targets and more margin for era.
