The Bears have really struggled to move the ball this season, as evidenced by their current No. 29 overall ranking in yards per game. While there are plenty of things at fault for the Bears' woeful offensive production, from Matt Nagy's playcalling to trouble establishing the run, it turns out another ugly issue has reared its ugly head: drops.
According to unofficial statistics from Fox, the Bears lead the NFL in drop percentage at 7.36%. According to the leaderboard, not only does Chicago lead the NFL in drop rate, but they are the only team in the league with a drop rate above 7%.
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There are a number of factors that have led to the Bears issues with drops and they appear to be a threefold issue.
1. The Bears receiving core has to improve in this capacity, especially considering that they have two players in the top 35 in the league in drops.
And those two players (Tarik Cohen with 6 dropped passes and Allen Robinson with 3 dropped passes) are crucial parts of the offense.
2. Mitch Trubisky has to give his receivers a chance.
Trubisky is coming off of his best game of the season against the Detroit Lions, in which he threw for 173 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no picks in a 20-13 Bears' win. In that matchup, he had a 69.6% completion rate, his second-best single-game completion percentage of the year. He will need to string together multiple games like this to continue to dispel the narrative surrounding him, help the Bears drop woes dissipate, and thusly help the squad make a serious playoff push.
In recent weeks, Nagy and co. have had Trubisky take fewer pass attempts, 22.0 per game over his last two weeks, and this comes after having a whopping 54 pass attempts in a Week 7 loss to the New Orleans Saints. With some adjustments from both the coaching staff and Trubisky, the third-year quarterback appears to be better positioned to be an accurate passer for the rest of the season, it's simply on him to deliver, as he did in Week 10.
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3. The offensive line has to be better to give Trubisky a chance to show any real improvement
The Bears are 22nd in the league in sacks allowed, having given up 27 through 10 weeks.
Obviously injuries have played a factor, with Kyle Long on the IR. And to Nagy's credit, he has shuffled around the assignments on the offensive line, trying to provide a spark to the group. Nagy himself stated, "We just know that making that switch, for a lot of different reasons is more beneficial."
We will see if the changes on the O-line actually help Trubisky get more comfortable in the pocket, helping him deliver more accurate strikes to his receivers.
The Bears need to try any and all remedies for their drop issues. An offense that is having trouble running the ball, and is trying to build confidence in their QB cannot afford to deal with these types of inconsistencies from their playmakers.
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