The Chicago Bears escaped Week 10 with another win over a subpar team. They hung on to take down the New York Giants 24-20, right before they chose to move on from head coach Brian Daboll. It wasn't the flashiest win, but you can only beat whoever is in front of you.
Notably, Caleb Williams showed he was on the right path, and he's strung solid performances together again. That cannot be said of his pass catchers, though, as the team dropped a season-high six passes.
Ben Johnson Needs to Be Worried About Olamide Zaccheaus' Drops
While it wasn't a pretty performance by the receivers corps, Olamide Zaccheaus stood out from the rest of the pack for all the wrong reasons, dropping two passes. Nevertheless, head coach Ben Johnson wants to cut everyone some slack, according to ESPN's Courtney Cronin.
"My strategy is like anything you talk about it and then you move on. You learn from it, you move on," Johnson said, per Cronin. "In my experience—and I’ve coached quarterbacks, I’ve coached receivers, I’ve coached tight ends on the offensive side—you can make things worse by going overboard on some of this stuff and that’s not the intent. All those guys, they want to catch the football when it comes their way. We acknowledge the fact that there were a few of those that we could have hauled in. We need to do that, turn the page, let’s keep it moving. We’re going to be just fine."
Still, it's becoming painfully evident that the Bears should cut Zaccheaus' playing time. He's played the third-most snaps among wide receivers on the team (353) behind only Rome Odunze and DJ Moore, yet he's turned that into 32 receptions on 50 targets for 248 yards and one receiving touchdown. He also has a Pro Football Focus grade of 58.9, which ranks 71st among 83 eligible wide receivers.
On the other hand, rookie WR Luther Burden III has nearly as many receiving yards (211) despite logging half as many receptions (16) and playing 200 fewer snaps (144). One doesn't have to be a football savant to realize that something's got to change.
Burden III should be the future of this team, along with Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze. He's shown that he's ready for a bigger role. Even if he were, Zaccheaus has done next to nothing to be ahead of him in the pecking order right now, and as much as Coach Johnson doesn't want to dwell on those mistakes, he has to cut his playing time to favor the rookie.