I have never seen anything like it. It didn’t matter which Chicago Bear Matt Barkley threw the football to, the ball was going to be dropped. And with the game there to be won, Barkley delivered not one or two but THREE touchdown passes that went through the hands of his pass “catchers”. Josh Bellamy’s drop on first-and-goal drop will be the poster image for this entire, painful 2016 campaign.

More thoughts:

• Someone needs to explain to me how Matt Barkley went from looking nervous and unprepared to Pro Bowler in a matter of moments. Was it the coverage? Was it an offensive scheme change? Barkley’s first NFL start should have left us with The Matt Barkley Game, a contest we never forget.
• The Bears dropped ten passes. Ten. And Barkley still eclipsed 300 yards on the day. What could his numbers have been?
• Barkley now becomes intriguing next week and moving forward. It’s unlikely he’s going to make Ryan Pace after his draft plans but he may provide the kind of young, affordable backup organizations need.
• Titans second half possessions: FG, FG, punt, punt. Bears second half possessions: INT, punt, TD, TD, eleven dropped TDs. We’ve complained about second half meltdowns this season. This was second half dominance.

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Entering his fourth year, Marquess WIlson is running out of time. He might also be looking at the best opportunity he has had in his career.

While Alshon Jeffery still doesn’t want to be a part of the team, Wilson is the person who benefits the most, getting all of the first-team reps. OTAs are where a finesse player like Wilson can thrive and, while he won’t be able to win a job until they put the pads on, the fact that he’s there getting reps in front of the new offensive coordinator (with a quarterback who already likes him) can only help him.

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If the Bears can ever get — and stay — healthy at the wide receiver position, their offense should really take off. Their top four receivers missed a combined 36 games, with the only one playing over half their snaps being Marquess Wilson. Youngers players stepped up and made plays but the position, expected to be a strength, ended up being a weakness.

ALSHON

If you took the numbers Alshon Jeffery put up in 8 1/2 games this season and calculated them out to a 16-game total, you see a star. The numbers are roughly 102 catches, 1,520 yards and eight touchdowns. Looks great, but you can’t give him credit for 16 games when he doesn’t play 16 games. Injuries are his biggest problem and there’s no reason to think they will go away. So how do the Bears assign him a value?

By not signing Jeffery before the season, the Bears made it clear they didn’t view him as an elite receiver. As good as he was at times, it’s hard to say he did anything to increase his value. The Bears can’t let Jeffery hit the open market, however, because someone else will offer him top-tier receiver money and Chicago doesn’t have a replacement. Whether it be with the Franchise Tag or a long-term contract, the Bears need to bring Jeffery back.

WHITE

We don’t know what Kevin White is. We think he’s a stud and when we hear Ryan Pace say he can’t wait to “unleash” him, it makes us believe that even more. Still, he’s going to be raw and nobody has a clue what kind of long-term effects the leg injury might have on him.

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• How many Bears players would start for Denver? Three? Four? Five, at most. Jay Cutler, Kyle Long, Marty Bennett and maybe Adrian Amos. Pernell McPhee could when he’s healthy, but he was a shell of himself yesterday. And, really, that’s it. But they could’ve won the game because they have a coach who wouldn’t let them quit and a quarterback who just kept coming after them.

• The anti-Cutler crowd didn’t waste any time, deeming him a failure again. Of course, they’re crazy. Cutler was great. How many times did he move around and find someone down field? That was their entire offense. Their quarterback had to make something out of nothing every time he dropped back. And it nearly worked against the best defense in the league. The same defense that held Aaron Rodgers to 77 yards passing. Cutler was the best player on the field.

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Losing a top-10 pick to a likely season-ending surgery sucks for any team. But Kevin White’s injury alone won’t change what the Bears 2015 season will be.

White wasn’t going to start. At least not right away after missing so much time in camp and with the way Marquess Wilson was playing. As physically talented as he may be, White enters the NFL raw and was drafted to a team full of polished receivers. The Bears were going to have packages for White, similar to how the Vikings used Cordarrelle Patterson as a rookie.

The Bears didn’t draft White for 2015. They drafted him for 2016-2026.

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The 2015 Chicago Bears could end up needing Marquess Wilson more than many think.

While nobody seems overly concerned with Kevin White’s health, the fact that he’s barely practiced since the Bears drafted him should be worrisome. Alshon Jeffery has had various injury issues in the past. When the Bears top two receivers were struggling last year, they didn’t have an answer. It should almost be expected for that to happen again this year and, if it does, they’ll need Wilson to step up.

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SPOILER ALERT: FOOTBALL PLAYERS ARE CRAZY

Both the major Chicago dailies feature columns disparaging Martellus Bennett for body slamming first-round selection Kyle Fuller to the ground in a fit of rage. Mark Potash in the Sun-Times wants the alarm sounded and Bennett read the riot act:

The Bennett-Fuller dust-up might end up being an isolated incident, but it’s a red flag nonetheless. Martellus Bennett is a Pro Bowl-caliber tight end and a good teammate who defers to more productive players in the offense. But on the field and off he’s an acquired taste that is not for everybody.

“I’m not here for friendships,” Bennett said.

That’s all well and good. You don’t have to make friends to be part of a winning team. But you definitely have to avoid making enemies.

If Bennett would have seriously hurt Fuller this would have been an unmitigated disaster. But he didn’t. Fuller is fine. And Bennett is a football player. I’m sorry if I don’t expect gigantic, jacked up Neanderthals to be well-adjusted human beings.

Also, on Potash’s last sentence…really? Do we spend so much time celebrating the 1985 Chicago Bears we actually forget who and what they were? There were plenty of enemies on that roster and two fierce enemies on the coaching staff.

Marquess Wilson Injury Makes Preseason More Interesting

I bet you didn’t expect THAT headline from me, did you? Let me explain.

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