Chicago Bears 2023 Midseason Grades: Offense

The Chicago Bears kick off the second half of their 2023 season Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers in a game that’s only importance to Bears fans is how it impacts the 2024 NFL Draft order.

The Bears hold the Panthers’ first-round pick after trading the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft to Carolina, and with only one win so far this season, the Panthers could be on their way to sending this year’s first overall selection Chicago’s way.

But there’s more than just the draft order on the line for the Bears. Justin Fields still has to prove he’s the quarterback of the future in Chicago, and with eight games left to play, he’ll need to go on a spectacular run to persuade GM Ryan Poles not to go quarterback shopping in the 2024 draft.

Fields hasn’t had a perfect first half of the season, partly because he’s missed three games with injury. And he’s not alone. The Bears are 2-7 for a reason, several players and coaches have underperformed.

Here are our midseason grades on offense for the 2023 Chicago Bears.

Quarterback: C

Justin Fields began the 2023 season as a viable MVP candidate in some sportsbooks, but his standing in Chicago has devolved to a possible quarterback controversy with undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent. In part, it’s because Fields hasn’t done a good enough job to silence his critics. But Bagent deserves some credit, too. He’s played above his draft (or undrafted?) grade and looks like a viable long-term backup — at worst — in the NFL.

The Bears get a passing grade at quarterback because Fields and Bagent have flashed enough upside to remain excited about both of them.

Recency bias makes fans forget how dominant Fields was playing before dislocating his right thumb against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 6. Sure, the first half of the Vikings game was forgettable, but he threw eight touchdowns and just one interception in the two games that preceded it. It appeared Fields was on the launching pad and ready to take off.

Through six games, Fields is on pace to set career-highs in completion percentage, touchdowns, and passing yards despite missing three weeks with injury. He’s actually having a good year.

He must regain his pre-injury momentum to quiet any concerns about his role moving forward, both for the short and long term.

Running Back: B

Like Justin Fields, Khalil Herbert was trending in the right direction before suffering an ankle injury in Week 5 in the Chicago Bears’ win over the Commanders. He’s averaging over five yards per carry (again!) and totaled 28 carries for 179 yards in Weeks 4 and 5.

Veteran D’Onta Foreman has stepped into the starter’s role during Herbert’s absence and has thrived. He has 65 carries for 287 yards and two scores in five games (four starts) and has, at the very least, played his way into a running back by committee once Herbert returns.

Rookie Roschon Johnson suffered a concussion in Week 5 that slowed his development this season. He’s proving to be a quality third-down back and, with a larger workload, could be the best all-around running back on the roster. I imagine his workload will increase with the Chicago Bears’ playoff hopes all but dead.

Wide Receiver: B+

DJ Moore gets most of the credit for this grade. He’s been as good as advertised, even if his production is a mixed bag. There’s not much he can do when offensive coordinator Luke Getsy fails to target him. Getsy should be (and hopefully will be) fired at the end of the season, and his lack of consistent targets for Moore will be an exhibit in the case against him. Still, Moore is a DUDE, and the Bears have a long-term alpha at WR1 locked up for several years.

Moore has a team-best 47 catches for 735 yards and five touchdowns.

Darnell Mooney is beginning to regain his pre-injury form, and that’s great news for Justin Fields and the Bears’ passing game. He’s coming off his best game of the season in Week 9 when he caught five passes for 82 yards against the Saints. Mooney’s explosive yards after the catch were encouraging, and if he can continue to stack games like that throughout the rest of the season, Ryan Poles has to think long and hard about giving him a contract extension.

There’s a steep fall in the wide receiver room after Moore and Mooney. Chase Claypool was supposed to be the WR3 (or even WR2), but he was terrible, and the Bears traded him to the Dolphins. It was addition by subtraction.

The Claypool trade left rookie Tyler Scott to take on the WR3 responsibility, and he’s flashed some promising upside. He’s still very young, and his inexperience shows at times. However, I think the Bears have a keeper in Scott, who will be an even better player in 2024 after a year of NFL growth and development.

Equanimeous St. Brown was the victim of roster numbers early in the season — he’s only been active for two games because of injury and being deactivated when Claypool was around. Once he’s healthy enough to get back on the field, he should slide into the WR3 role and provide a big boost for the running game and the red zone offense.

Tight End: B+

Cole Kmet has arguably been the Bears’ best all-around player on offense this season. He’s on pace for career-highs in receptions, yards, and touchdowns and is justifying every penny of the four-year, $50 million extension Ryan Poles gave him at the start of the season.

I still think he has some athletic limitations that leave explosive plays and chunk yards on the field, but who cares? He’s only 24 years old and is emerging as one of the best all-around tight ends in the NFL.

I didn’t give the Bears’ tight ends an A because there’s been virtually no production from anyone at the position besides Kmet. Robert Tonyan only has seven catches in nine games. That’s gross. Chicago signed him to be another pass-catching weapon on offense. He’s been a dud. Veteran Marcedes Lewis has two catches this year, but that’s par for the course, as Lewis has become more of an extra offensive lineman at this point in his career.

Offensive Line: C-

It’s hard to give a fair grade to the Chicago Bears offensive line midway through the 2023 season. The projected starters have barely played together. Right guard and free-agent signing Nate Davis has only started four games, he’s missed time with an ankle injury. Left tackle Braxton Jones started three games before going on injured reserve with a neck injury. Left guard Teven Jenkins has appeared in just five games.

Assuming my math is correct, that’s 3/5 of the Bears’ starting offensive line that’s been in and out of the lineup.

Still, the NFL is a next-man-up league. Teams have to respond to injuries better than the Bears have, who’ve been unable to field a consistent group of five starters so far this year.

Pro Football Focus ranked Chicago’s offensive line 29th in their latest NFL offensive line rankings, which seems fair.

The best Bears offensive lineman this season has been rookie right tackle Darnell Wright. The analytics may not support that statement, but Bears fans know the deal. They watch the games with their own eyes, and they see a big, strong, and athletic bookend who’s mauling defenders with his power and protecting his quarterback with his athleticism. He hasn’t been perfect, but man, it’s impossible not to love his upside.

The worst Bears lineman has to be center Cody Whitehair, who, despite nearly a decade of quality service for the Bears, looks like he’s run out of gas. His snaps are chaotic, and he no longer has the necessary combination of strength and movement skills to win along the interior. Unfortunately, Chicago’s options to replace him aren’t much better. Lucas Patrick is OK — at times — but usually looks like an overmatched backup who belongs on the sideline.

I expect the Chicago Bears will prioritize center … and left tackle … in free agency and the 2024 NFL Draft.

Offensive Coordinator: F

If you scroll through these grades, you’d think the Bears have a decent offense. No position group is an outright failure despite some shortcomings. But even the best collection of players requires a competent play-caller to put them in situations to succeed. Luke Getsy has failed miserably at that job.

I took heat from Bears beat writers on Twitter earlier this season for saying Getsy should be fired after Week 2. And while I take no pride in advocating for someone to lose their job, anyone with a functioning set of eyes could see that Getsy can’t call plays. He landed this job with the Bears because of his time as Aaron Rodgers QB coach in Green Bay. But let’s be honest: you and I could be Rodgers’ QB coach and have the same level of success. I think Rodgers was coaching Getsy, not the other way around.

The Chicago Bears offense won’t take off until they get rid of Getsy and hire a coordinator with a proven track record of building an offense around what his players do well. Getsy isn’t that guy. Instead, he’s tried to make Bears players fit his system. That never works. The Bears need to move on.