We’ll pick up right where we left off yesterday — let’s review the rest of the Bears draft class, stopping only once we reach the players that have yet to log meaningful snaps.

Zacch Pickens:

• Overall: Pickens has underwhelmed in the eyes of some, but I can’t help feeling like he’s better described as a player miscast within this defense — at South Carolina, Pickens was a reliable 1-gap run defender with a quick first step that flashed nuanced hand-usage when rushing the passer at the Senior Bowl. He’s a lighter defensive lineman (listed at 300lbs by Chicago) better suited for quick penetration than he for holding up against double teams… but why then have the Bears asked him to be the backup Nose Tackle? It doesn’t make sense, though I continue to hope that one day it will.
  • The weight difference between Andrew Billings (listed at 330lbs) and Zacch Pickens (listed at 300lbs) tells the whole story, especially since Billings and Pickens are likely heavier & lighter than their listings respectively. It’s no surprise Pickens is struggling, especially against double-teams, but when he’s allowed to do the job I think he better fits he flashes reps like the Tweet below.
• Where he’s surprised me: His first step was always good in school, but I’ve been surprised at how many plays (~3 come to mind) he’s made in limited action due to his first step alone. Also, we did see Pickens anchor a few times successfully in the preseason — that was a nice surprise. Rooting for him.
• Improvement area: A player like Pickens can always use more refinement with his hands, though he flashed a wonderful long-arm pass rush against Washington that gives me hope for the future. Pickens is often used as the ‘set up man’ within stunts for his teammates, so he doesn’t get nearly as many opportunities as teammates like Dominique Robinson, Rasheem Green, or DeMarcus Walker — I’d love to see him get more pass-rush opportunities before I attempt to grade him further.

#Bears DT Zacch Pickens finally gets a rep at 3T and would you believe it he long-arms his G for a pressure.

Huh. Back to 1Tech I guess. pic.twitter.com/d5g1oEIuxe

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) October 10, 2023

Roschon Johnson:

• Overall: Roschon looks like a young star. He runs hard, he catches the ball well, and he’s a reliable pass-blocker when picking up blitzes or assisting his defensive linemen. The RB position can be fairly self-evident, so I don’t know how much more there is to say — it’s a shame he’s currently injured, but he should be back soon. And as this offense gets healthier overall, he should get plenty of opportunities to create chunk plays.

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The wait is finally (almost) over — Bears training camp is (nearly) upon us!

Rookies have reported to Halas Hall already, Veterans report tomorrow, and practices officially start Wednesday — that means more content is coming for all of us that starved through the dog days of the offseason, and it’s the perfect time to start previewing  what I think will be the best storylines to follow throughout camp this year.

For starters: How will Roschon Johnson fit into the 2023 Bears’ RB room?

Before the Draft took place, the 2023 Bears’ RB room was well-rounded in theory but a bit over-specialized in practice:

• Khalil Herbert is a fabulous runner and a perfect system fit, but both his pass-blocking and pass-catching can be outright liabilities when the offense gets behind the chains
• D’Onta Foreman brings experience to the Bears as a hard-nosed one-cut RB, but offenses have avoided asking him to catch the ball since he first he got to the league and I doubt the Bears will expect much out of him in that phase of the game
• Travis Homer is a capable Special Teamer and all-around 3rd Down RB, but unless the Bears deviate from 2022 (where Herbert & Montgomery rarely substituted mid-drive, opting to rotate between offensive possessions) it may be hard to get him on the field for passing scenarios outside obvious 3rd downs

All of these RBs are talented players that produce well when playing to their strengths, but as of early April none of the RBs looked ready to take on an old-school 3-down role within an offense that’s utilized 3-down runners (Christian McCaffrey, Aaron Jones, etc) to great effect — if an RB can capably sell Play Action, block on dropbacks, produce when handed the ball, and catch the ball when it’s thrown to him, this offensive scheme rewards him handsomely with open space and yardage galore.

Enter Roschon Johnson, a 22 year old out of Texas with remarkably little tread on his tires due to sitting behind phenom runner Bijan Robinson for all but his freshman year. This 6’2″ 220+lb has all the traits you’re looking for on tape, including:

• A quick first step that helps challenge tackling angles from the moment he takes the handoff
• A clear preference for playing North-South (as opposed to East-West)
• The explosion to get to wide lanes when needed (3rd clip is a great example of him exploding laterally multiple times while staying downhill throughout)
• The contact balance to grind out extra yards and a wicked stiff arm to boot
• Experience blocking in both standard pass sets and less orthodox sets (ex: on the move)
• Solid hands, though his tape lacks opportunities in the pass game due to circumstance

And if you ask me, he has an opportunity to play in Chicago very quickly if he makes an impression in Training Camp.

This city is going to LOVE Texas RB Roschon Johnson.

He's a true 3-down RB with the explosion to make hard cuts & the contact balance to break tackles en masse. He gets downhill, finishes carries, and he blocks (!) on pass downs.

Should boost the #Bears PA pass game. FUN player pic.twitter.com/5OBnZHE4tE

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) May 8, 2023

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This is the slowest period of the NFL season, and it’s a welcome respite from what has become a ten-month onslaught of content. Here are some links for a nice spring Friday.

• NBC SPORTS: A.Q. Shipley is a huge fan of Darnell Wright, and there’s one big reason why: attitude.
• BIGGS: There’s not a ton of news in this Brad Biggs Q&A with Gervon Dexter, but it’s interesting nevertheless.
• You know it’s a slow news cycle when Roschon Johnson wearing a Bears sweater last year at Texas warrants a stand-alone “news” story.
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS: Sometimes the headline does all the work for you. “Bear spotted with waders in mouth may have eaten angler” is one of those headlines. (Spoiler alert: The bear ate the angler.)
• ARLINGTON HEIGHTS.
  • If the Bears want their project in the burbs to come to fruition, it’s going to need legislative support. That legislative support is not going to happen in this session, per Larry Hawley.
  • The Sun-Times is suggesting that, perhaps, the Bears don’t have the political support they need.
• Interested in reading about the NFL’s Marxist economic paradox? Here is my literary review of Michael Oriard’s terrific Brand NFL: Making and Selling America’s Favorite Sport. Brand NFL Literary Review_Final
• HOGE & JAHNS: I didn’t realize these guys were even putting their podcast on YouTube, because I don’t notice a lot of things. Here is their schedule release reaction.

Today is the sixth of eight articles taking a closer look at Justin Fields’ 2022 season.

• Part 1: Comparison to rookie season and growth throughout 2022
• Part 2: Where and how effectively Fields threw the ball.
• Part 3: How Fields did on different types of plays (play action, quick vs. slow developing).
• Part 4: How often Fields was under pressure, and who was to blame.
• Part 5: How Fields performed under pressure.
• Part 6: How efficiently Fields produced explosive plays.
• Part 7: How Fields did against man and zone.
• Part 8: Fields’ future outlook.

All data comes from Pro Football Reference‘s Game Play Finder, unless otherwise noted.

Explosive Plays

I’ve been tracking explosive plays for several years because I found they have a strong correlation to total points scored by the offense. Therefore, they’re an important indicator of offensive success; by and large, good offenses produce more explosive plays.

The exact criteria I use for explosive plays are runs that gain 15 or more yards and passes that gain 20 or more yards. This is borrowed from ESPN Stats.

The table below shows how the Bears ranked in explosive runs, explosive passes, and total explosive plays compared to the other 31 NFL teams last year. Areas where they were in the top 25% are highlighted in green, while those in the bottom 25% are highlighted in red.

A few thoughts:

• Fans might remember that Justin Fields missed two games with injury last year, and these numbers change ever so slightly if you look only at the 15 games Fields started and extrapolate those to a 17-game season. That would bring them to 73 total explosive plays, which would rank 16th.
  • Most of this series has been looking at Fields from week 5 on only, since there was such a noticeable change in his performance after a dismal first month. Focusing on those games would slightly bump the Bears up to 74 explosive plays (15th) when extrapolated to a full season.
• These numbers are not different enough to change the general conclusions. The Bears had one of the most explosive rushing attacks in the NFL but were one of the least explosive passing games. This is probably not a surprise to any Bears fans who watched the games last year. Overall, that worked out being around average in total explosive plays.

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Darnell Wright, OT

and the interview…

Gervon Dexter, DT

and chatting…

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