Chicago Bears: 3 intriguing storylines heading into training camp
Counting snaps and targets
It’s not that this is necessarily a problem (if it is, it’s certainly a good one to have) but Matt Nagy is going to have to figure out how to spread the wealth — and touches — among his stable of offensive weapons. He’ll be charged with the responsibility of figuring out which players, in which combinations, give the offense the best chance to succeed. This goes well beyond striking a balance between run plays and pass plays.
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Nagy will have to uncover who among the group of wide receivers will be the primary targets. Much of this, however, will be dictated by how the wide receivers perform in camp. While players like Riley Ridley and Marvin Hall received praise for their performances in minicamp, it’ll be a whole other world when the pads go on and things ratchet up.
We know Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, and Cordarrelle Patterson will be the core group, but who among Ridley, Marvin Hall, Javon Wims, and Emanuel Hall, will emerge as that next option.
In the backfield, the three-headed monster of “Run D-M-C” (Mike Davis, David Montgomery, and Tarik Cohen) will also be competing for carries. One of the things the Bears have talked about with respect to these three running backs is their versatility. Each one is a three-down back which allows them to avoid becoming too predictable whenever one of them is in the game.
While that’s true, it’s also true that you want to ride with your best players or top performers. You get the sense that at some point (perhaps in training camp) one or more will start to emerge as the favorites to receive the lion’s share of the carries. If Montgomery is the player the Bears think he will be, he and Cohen could see the most snaps as the biggest playmakers in the backfield. Time will tell.