Memo to Chicago Bears: Play Tre McBride more this week

The Chicago Bears need to quit giving meaningful snaps to Josh Bellamy and play Tre McBride more.

Just three weeks ago, Tre McBride had the best game of his young career, posting three catches for 92 yards for the Chicago Bears against the New Orleans Saints.

So, naturally, he barely saw the field for the Bears against the Green Bay Packers.

McBride logged just seven snaps in last Sunday’s 23-16 loss, ceding his playing time to Josh Bellamy of all people.

On one hand, Bellamy did haul in a 46-yard touchdown from Mitch Trubisky, so it paid off somewhat. Of course, he also had a drop, so nothing new there.

But the puzzling thing to me after doing some digging was the reasoning Dowell Loggains gave as to why McBride didn’t play much:

Umm…what?

You really mean to try to tell me that McBride doesn’t have speed, Dowell? Did you watch the Saints game? I think he runs just fine.

Besides, if what you wanted was speed, then why didn’t Markus Wheaton play more? I know he’s recovering from injury, but that’s the fastest receiver you have probably. But I digress.

The point I’m here to make is this: stop screwing around with this roster and play your playmakers. Play Tre McBride.

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I already talked about the absurdity of not playing Tarik Cohen more, especially when defenses actually game plan for him. Now, it’s time for the Chicago Bears to quit playing an old, bad veteran receiver in Bellamy and give McBride more opportunities.

When the Chicago Bears added Dontrelle Inman and were getting Wheaton back healthy, I immediately thought the stage would be perfectly set for McBride to show what he’s got.

For one thing, both Inman and Kendall Wright showed the ability to punish defenses for playing man-to-man on Sunday. As such, they won’t necessarily need to rely on McBride as much in those situations, though his speed and size should be useful on the field nonetheless.

But especially against zone, McBride could thrive in the bunched sets the Bears utilized, if rarely, in recent games.

His route-running could use a little work, but he runs well and has shown reliable hands thus far. That alone should get him on the field more than Bellamy in a universe that makes sense.

And having more competent receivers next to him will help him get easier matchups to separate against. After all, let’s not forget that he was drawing tougher matchups in his first few starts because the Bears weren’t playing Wright, Wheaton wasn’t healthy (or good) and Inman wasn’t here yet. Let’s see what he does as a third or fourth option.

By all accounts, I’m sure he can at least match anything Bellamy could do on the field. Personally, I think McBride gives you a lot more.

Next: Loggains reveals what's wrong with Bears offense

But hey, as we found out earlier this week, the Chicago Bears don’t want to run a functioning, sensible offense. So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what becomes of McBride. What a shame that’d be to watch him put up almost 100 yards receiving and then disappear into nothingness.

That’d just be so Bears.