Bears fans were forced to wait another 24+ hours to see the much-anticipated debut of the Ben Johnson era in Chicago as the team was featured on ESPN’s Monday Night Football for the first week of the season. While it seemed to have been well worth the wait after an initial drive that saw Caleb Williams go perfect through the air on his way to the first rushing touchdown of his career, the night slowly turned sour. The offense seemed to stall for much of the game, save a touchdown near the end of the game.
Below, we’ll take a look at how each of the Bears’ stars fared statistically after Monday’s matchup with Minnesota, in comparison to the benchmarks we established in the season preview edition of this series.
Quarterback
Caleb Williams
Comp: 2022 Jared Goff
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Completions | Pass Attempts | Completion % | Pass Yards | Pass TDs | INTs | Pass Y/A | Pass Y/G | Pass Rating | Sacks | Rush Attempts | Rush Yards | Rush TDs | Rush Y/A | Rush Y/G | QBR | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goff | 17 | 17 | 382 | 587 | 65.10% | 4438 | 29 | 7 | 7.6 | 261.1 | 99.3 | 23 | 29 | 73 | – | 2.5 | 4.3 | 63.3 | 7 | Pro Bowl |
| Williams | 1 | 1 | 21 | 35 | 60% | 210 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 210 | 86.6 | 2 | 6 | 58 | 1 | 9.7 | 58 | 63.8 | – |
Caleb’s accuracy woes seem to have carried over into the start of the new season, particularly on throws down the field. That will continue to be something to watch moving forward as we compare to Goff’s 2022 season. One thing that truly separates Caleb though, is his scrambling ability, which showed up big this week.
Running Backs
D’Andre Swift
Comp: 2022 D’Andre Swift
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Rush Attempts | Rush Yards | Rush TDs | Rush Y/A | Rush Y/G | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swift (DET) | 14 | 8 | 99 | 542 | 5 | 5.5 | 38.7 | 70 | 48 | 389 | 8.1 | 3 | 3.4 | 27.8 | 1 | – |
| Swift (CHI) | 1 | 1 | 17 | 53 | 0 | 3.1 | 53 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 12 | – | – |
Williams will get plenty of scrutiny for his performance against the Vikings this week, however, the Bears running game was not doing much to help him out. Swift will need to improve in order to open things up for the offense as a whole.
Roschon Johnson, Kyle Monangai, etc.
Comp: 2024 David Montgomery
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Rush Attempts | Rush Yards | Rush TDs | Rush Y/A | Rush Y/G | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery | 14 | 14 | 185 | 775 | 12 | 4.2 | 55.4 | 38 | 36 | 341 | 9.5 | – | 2.6 | 24.4 | 2 | – |
| Bears | 1 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 2.7 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 11 | – | 1 | 11 | – | – |
Swift could also use some help though, as he’s a one-man backfield right now. The 3 carries not by Swift or Caleb Williams were from DJ Moore (not Johnson or Monangai) and only amounted to 8 yards. Monangai caught his lone target on the night, but the RB room will need reinforcements in some shape or form to keep pace with what Ben Johnson has found success with in the past.
Tight Ends
Cole Kmet
Comp: 2021 T.J. Hockenson
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hockenson | 12 | 12 | 84 | 61 | 583 | 9.6 | 4 | 5.1 | 48.6 | – | – |
| Kmet | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 31 | 31 | 0 | 1 | 31 | – | – |
Kmet saw some targets throughout the night, and was definitely missed on at least one wide-open play that would have seen this stat line take a different shape. Still, his lone catch was a huge play of 31 yards and is something you can build on if you’re Williams/Kmet/Johnson.
Colston Loveland
Comp: 2023 Sam LaPorta
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LaPorta | 17 | 14 | 120 | 86 | 889 | 10.3 | 10 | 5.1 | 52.3 | – | Pro Bowl |
| Loveland | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 6 | – | 2 | 12 | – | – |
The Bears’ rookies were a bit of a letdown in this game across the board. After high draft capital investment and encouraging signs through camp and preseason, many thought Loveland and the rest could flash their talent sooner rather than later. Yet it seems like we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the young, toolsy player put it all together.
Wide Receivers
DJ Moore
Comp: 2024 Amon-Ra St. Brown
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Brown | 17 | 17 | 141 | 115 | 1263 | 11 | 12 | 6.8 | 74.3 | 1 | Pro Bowl, All-Pro |
| Moore | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 68 | 22.7 | 0 | 3 | 68 | 1 | – |
I’ll first say that I’m glad that Moore seemed to avoid a significant injury late in the game. However, he also avoided a significant impact on the game. Similarly to Kmet, Moore was missed on a couple of targets in which he was wide open and may have found the endzone late in the game to set the Bears up with some more time on their final drive of the game, if not for an errant throw.
Rome Odunze
Comp: 2024 Jameson Williams
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Williams | 15 | 11 | 91 | 58 | 1001 | 17.3 | 7 | 3.9 | 66.7 | – | – |
| Odunze | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 37 | 6.2 | 1 | 6 | 37 | – | – |
Odunze had a mixed bag of a game in terms of overall production too. While he posted the lone score outside of Williams, he was limited to just 37 yards on 6 receptions – far from the deep threat that many hope he can develop into.
Olamide Zaccheaus
Comp: 2023 Josh Reynolds
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reynolds | 17 | 13 | 64 | 40 | 608 | 15.2 | 10 | 2.4 | 35.8 | 1 | – |
| Zaccheaus | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 42 | 42 | 0 | 4 | 42 | – | – |
OZ’s target share was not surprising to anyone who had been following the Bears this offseason. He and Caleb seem to have been building chemistry and the trust is there. It’ll be interesting to see how that continues to develop throughout the rest of the season.
Luther Burden III
Comp: 2023 Jameson Williams
Benchmark Statistics:
| Games | Starts | Targets | Receptions | Rec Yards | Rec Y/R | Rec TDs | R/G | Rec Y/G | Fumbles | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Williams | 12 | 10 | 42 | 24 | 354 | 14.8 | 2 | 2 | 29.5 | 1 | – |
| Burden | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | -3 | 0 | 1 | -3 | – | – |
My words here would probably only serve to frustrate everyone reading this. The fact is that Luther Burden is far too talented to only get a single target (behind the line of scrimmage) and we have to hope that he finds his way into the game plan quickly.
