JACKSONVILLE – Senior writer John Oehser each week during the 2024 regular season will speak with a writer or media member covering the Jaguars' opponent.
Up this week:
The Athletic Chicago Bears writer Kevin Fishbain on the Bears as they enter Sunday's 2024 Week 6 game against the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Q: The Bears are 3-2 entering Sunday, with victories over the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers the last two weeks. They beat the Panthers 36-10 Sunday. What's the state of the Bears entering Sunday?
A: This definitely is the best they have felt all season. They really needed [the victory over Carolina] after the way the year started. The first three games, the offense really had trouble finding its footing. The run game struggled, the pass protection struggled, [rookie quarterback] Caleb Williams was having your typical rookie ups and downs and they started 1-2. They were very efficient in their win over the Rams, but Carolina was just kind of a dominant win on both sides that this team has not really ever been able to do under [Head Coach] Matt Eberflus. I think they feel really good about what they did against Carolina, from Caleb Williams' production, to the offensive line playing well, to the defense really responding to giving up a long touchdown run in the first quarter. Weeks 2 and 3 were bumpy. They're feeling a lot more confident right now.
Q: Where is Williams after five games?
A: The bar in Chicago is not that high for Bears quarterbacks. Williams' performance on Sunday goes up there as one of the better ones we've ever seen from a Bears quarterback. There were struggles early on. False starts. Missed receivers. Taking sacks. Turnovers. They really wanted to take some stuff off his plate and get the run game going. Over the last two weeks, you've seen his comfort level grow, his confidence grow. It's stuff we saw in training camp. He had a pretty good summer. When the season started, when he wasn't getting the pass protection the Bears hoped for, when he wasn't getting the run game, he might have felt like he had to be Superman a little bit. That's hard to do when you're a rookie quarterback. Now, we're seeing the talent, and we're seeing the comfort. You're also seeing how confident the Bears are in letting him make calls at the line. When he wants to go no huddle, they go no huddle, and they let him roll.
Q: What do they want to be offensively? When they're going good, what are they?
A: They want to be balanced, which is a cliche answer, but I don't think they are built yet to throw 35, 40 times and win. They really want to be able to run, impose their will on the offensive line and make things easier for Caleb Williams – whether it's through play action or misdirection, things like that. They don't want him to have to be the guy even though he's capable of it, even though they have a great trio of wide receivers. They want to be balanced. Ultimately, the pass probably will be the strength when things are going well because of the talent at wide receiver and because of where the talent is at receiver and because of what Caleb Williams can do as a thrower. At this point in his career, the offense – as we saw the last two weeks – is best when they get [running backs] D'Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson and the run game going.
Q: Assess the defense.
A: That's their strength. It's Matt Eberflus. He's from the Rod Marinelli tree, going back to the Tampa 2 and running some of that Cover 2, zone defense. Eberflus is more maybe more aggressive than some of the coordinators from that tree. They blitzed [Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford a lot more than they usually do, but their goal is to get pressure with the front four. The secondary is probably their strength. [Cornerback] Jaylon Johnson is an All-Pro and Kyler Gordon is a very good nickel. The secondary tackles about as good as any secondary I've seen. That was a big thing against Carolina: They swarmed the ball after quick passes. The run defense has been leaky and that's a surprising issue considering how good they are at linebacker. They say it's just guys not being in gaps, and it's pretty easy fixes, but that's something to keep an eye on. Probably the matchup I'm most looking forward to is strength versus strength, which is those Jacksonville receivers against the Bears secondary.
Q: What does success look like for the Bears this season? Is it just to get a winning record with a capable team and rookie quarterback? Or is it higher than that?
A: It's higher than that for the long-term. They're trying to understand that it's really hard for a rookie quarterback to go to the playoffs – even if he's got this wealth of talent around him like Caleb Williams has. And right now, they're in the best division in the NFL. I think everybody there understands it. In my opinion, a successful season is if come January the Bears look at their team the way the [Houston] Texans looked at their team at the end of last year and say, "We know we have the quarterback. We know we have the coach. We know we have the play caller. Let's just fill in a couple things, and we're going to be playoff perennial playoff contenders and maybe even a Super Bowl contender." Success to them is just when the season ends, they don't want to have to change coaching staffs again. They know how difficult it is to keep doing that over and over again. They want to be able to know that they have the right guy in Caleb Williams. If they're able to keep the stability, feel great about the quarterback the way Houston does about C.J. Stroud, the way Jacksonville certainly has talked about Trevor Lawrence, that would be success even if it's not a playoff team or a team that wins a playoff game.
