The Chicago Bears are a franchise synonymous with defense. But the Bears enter the 2024 NFL season as one of the league’s more intriguing teams suddenly, and it’s the offense that has everyone so giddy in the Windy City.
The drafting of quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick and wide receiver Rome Odunze at No. 9 has Bears fans’ heads going to some unfamiliar places.
Adding them to a unit that already featured DJ Moore and Cole Kmet, along with offseason additions D'Andre Swift and Keenan Allen, gives the Bears a lot of offensive firepower – and a good environment for Williams to step into as a rookie.
“It’s exciting,” Kmet told Kay Adams of “Up & Adams” on Tuesday. “We’ve got a lot of young, talented players, and I think for the first time in a long time — I don’t even know if it’s ever happened — we have an infrastructure in place for a high-end, talented rookie quarterback to come in.
“Obviously, Caleb is highly touted. He’s been that way for a long time now. He gets to go in a situation with a lot of veteran, quality, good players and also a really good defense.”
Adams also spoke with Moore, who loves the idea of playing in three-WR sets with Allen and Odunze and believes defenses will have to take a pick-your-poison approach against the Bears.
“Some more excitement out of it,” Moore told Adams of what he expects this season from Chicago’s receiving crew. “We’ve got people on the field that you can’t just double team or somebody else is going to be open, making it a game for themselves, like the Thursday night game I had. … Any one of us could go off and have a game like that if you put man to man on us.”
Moore’s 2024 goals are primarily team-driven, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t hoping for a little statistical love after setting career bests in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns last season.
“Just making the playoffs, just showing the growth that we had over the past year. Making the playoffs, (earning) 10 wins,” Moore said. “Having 1,000 yards (receiving) could come second.”
Moore led the Bears in all three major receiving categories by a healthy margin. Allen had more than twice as many targets and receptions as anyone else on the Chargers’ offense last season. And even Odunze, in a crowded Washington WR corps, far outpaced the Huskies’ other receivers in catches, yards and TDs.
So who is the WR1 in this offense? When Adams said she didn’t know who it would be while talking with Matt Eberflus, the Bears head coach agreed.
“We don’t either,” Eberflus said.
The NFC North, and perhaps the rest of the league, had better be prepared to deal with all three on Sundays.
