Chicago Bears’ poor roster construction was on display in the loss to Minnesota

What came through in this loss was the Chicago Bears’ lack of talent at wide receiver.

The Bears have Darnell Mooney who is a No. 2 receiver. He is being asked to be the No. 1 receiver. Then he is surrounded by a bunch of players who are No. 5 or practice squad receivers.

Bryon Pringle, Equanimeous St. Brown, and Dante Pettis were signed in the offseason. Pringle is on injured reserve. St. Brown has proven to be a capable blocker. In the long-term plan, he could turn into a solid No. 4 receiver.

Pettis is paid to catch passes and he is not doing that. He had two key drops against Minnesota that stalled drives. He had a pretty bad drop last week against the New York Giants that could have kept a drive going.

Rookie Velus Jones Jr. finally got into the endzone. He was drafted in the third round and has dynamic speed. He missed most of training camp along with the first three games of the season with an injury.

While Jones Jr. has the potential to be a good playmaker, many out there still wonder if the Bears would have been better served drafting George Pickens in the second round. Poles went with safety Jaquan Brisker and he has a chance to be a really good player in the league.

Still, the Bears might be better with a big-play receiver like Pickens. That debate will be made for two or three years as Pickens and Brisker have barely scratched the surface of their careers.

That lack of talent has left experts saying you really cannot evaluate Justin Fields this season. To be fair, Poles did not walk into a situation like Minnesota.

The Vikings had Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and K.J. Osborn in place. Those explosive players were on display in Minnesota. Jefferson gashed the Bears’ defense for 12 catches and 154 yards. Although, the Bears’ second-half adjustments on defense limited Jefferson to just two catches in the final two quarters.

Poles started the offseason with only Darnell Mooney under contract.

It would have been nice if Poles signed some veteran receivers who can be a No. 2 or No. 3 option. Instead, the Bears rolled out five wide receivers making a combined $4.425 million with Pettis making the most.

The problem right now is Poles put together a very weak receiver group. The Bears need to win games on the margins and right now this bad receiver group is leaving Chicago with slim chances of winning in that area. Losing on Sunday was evidence of that.