Chicago Bears: Personnel evaluations a huge concern

The Chicago Bears are struggling with personnel evaluations.

The Chicago Bears are back on the winning track having won two in a row after defeating the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. It appears winning is the magic elixir, as the calls to fire head coach Matt Nagy and general manager, Ryan Pace have grown fainter and fainter. Heck, there are even calls to extend quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

Somehow, two wins have overshadowed what we have seen from this leadership team, and all of the criticisms of Nagy have seemed to fall by the wayside because he has, in year three, committed to the run and simplified the offense for Mitch.

However, there is a flaw that has not been corrected and is still very much a concern going forward, should the Bears retain their coach. That concern is the ability, or lack thereof, to correctly evaluate the talent on their roster.

There are countless examples of Nagy playing the inferior player, starting with Jimmy Graham over Cole Kmet for much of the season. Nevertheless, the most egregious example might be the one that held them back the most this year.

For weeks, Bears fans suffered watching a porous offensive line that was comprised of journeyman Germain Ifedi and converted defensive lineman Rashaad Coward. The results were horrendous and only got worse following the injury to James Daniels.

However, it was an injury to Cody Whitehair and Bobby Massie that literally forced the head coach’s hand to play Sam Mustipher. As a result of those injuries, Mustipher was thrust into action as Nagy was forced to go to the bottom of his depth chart for starters.

As it turns out, the insertion of Mustipher into the lineup at center, which moved Whitehair to guard, Alex Bars to the other guard spot, and Ifedi to right tackle, has the offensive line playing like an above-average unit.

As a result, David Montgomery has gone over 100-yards rushing in three of his last four games, hitting a season-high 146 yards on 32 carries against the Vikings.

The question remains — what took them so long to make the move? How did they see these players perform each week in practice and not see they were the superior talent? Earlier in the year, both were available to poach off of the Bears’ practice squad. Just a few short weeks later, they may have saved their season — and ownership should never lose sight of that fact.