Stock up, Stock down after Bears loss to Vikings |
Chicago’s heartbreaking 30-27 overtime loss against the Minnesota Vikings was truly a mixed bag, with many highs and lows. Some players improved their stock, while others took a hit.
Caleb Williams - Stock Up Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams put the Bears in position to potentially win the game. He and the offense scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, including a game-tying field goal to send the game to overtime. While the sack he suffered in overtime when he held onto the ball was costly, Williams still improved tremendously. He had the most passing yards out of any quarterback in the NFL in week 12 with 340 yards; Williams added two passing touchdowns to that. Perhaps most importantly, he is not putting the ball in harm’s way. Williams has not thrown an interception since Chicago’s last win against the Jacksonville Jaguars just before the bye week. His stock is up and, hopefully for Bears fans, will continue to go up. Run Defense - Stock Down It is just perplexing how much the run defense has struggled. They were one of the best in the league last year and now are one of the worst, quite a dramatic change especially when the Bears mostly kept their defensive line intact. Chicago allowed 106 rushing yards to Vikings’ back Aaron Jones; it was his first 100-yard rushing game since week three against the Houston Texans. The Bears have allowed three rushing touchdowns in the past two games and have given up a total of 12 rushing touchdowns. Especially with the Bears going against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving (11:30 a.m. / CBS), this run defense is going to prove costly to Chicago. Special Teams - Stock Up Slightly Yes, the Vikings game marked the second straight game with a blocked field goal and yes, DeAndre Carter muffed a punt. That is why the stock only went up slightly. However, special teams is the reason for overtime. They recovered the onside kick. Kicker Cairo Santos made the 48-yard field goal at the end of the game this time to allow the Bears to go to overtime. Punter Tory Taylor also performed well with an average of 48.7 yards per punt with one punt inside the 20 yard line. Carter redeemed himself later in the game with a 55-yard return to set up a Chicago touchdown. There are improvements needed for special teams, but they proved pivotal in Chicago getting to overtime even though the offense and defense did not capitalize. D’Andre Swift - Stock Down Ever since Chicago lost to the Washington Commanders on the Hail Mary, running back D’Andre Swift has not had the same production. That is probably in part because he is not on the field as much. In each of the two games under interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, Swift has been on the field for less than 60 percent of the offensive snaps. That only occurred once under previous offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Chicago is paying $8 million a year for Swift and right now, he does not seem worth the salary as he is not consistently productive. DJ Moore - Stock Up Welcome back DJ Moore. It was fun to watch wide receiver DJ Moore last season en route to over 1,300 receiving yards. Much of that fun was lost this season as he was not even leading the team in receiving going into Chicago’s game against the Vikings; rookie receiver Rome Odunze had the most yards. However, Moore has reappeared in the offense under Brown who has been a specific effort to get the ball into Moore’s hands. It has paid off against the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings as the Bears’ offense has looked better in those two games with Moore involved.
