Getty DENVER, COLORADO - SEPTEMBER 15: Pat O'Donnell #16 and Eddy Pineiro #15 of the Chicago Bears celebrate a 53 yard field goal in the final second of the fourth quarter to defeat the Denver Broncos. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
On the Under Center podcast, former Bears players Lance Briggs, Matt Forte, Olin Kreutz, and Alex Brown, alongside Lawrence Holmes, discussed the Chicago Bears recent victory over Denver.
While they all unanimously agreed the defense is excellent and that Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky must be better, Lance Briggs, who was on the last Bears team to make it to the Super Bowl, made a suggestion that he felt could help the offense until it improves as a unit: “Maybe you need to play the field position game…we need great punts and great kicks…we need to put our offense in position where maybe they only have to go five yards to get into field goal range.” Can this current Bears team benefit from a newfound focus on special teams? Several of the team’s retired greats think so.
The Bears Must Make Special Teams a Priority
GettyFormer Bears Linebacker Lance Briggs thinks offense-minded Matt Nagy needs to put extra emphasis on special teams.
Briggs said he thinks that the offensive-minded Nagy should re-focus, and put an extra emphasis on game-planning when it comes to special teams–at least until Trubisky improves. “There’s unique ways to approach games if you put emphasis on certain things maybe you weren’t thinking about before…special teams is a big part,” Briggs continued. “Huge,” Alex Brown agreed. Brown noted that while kickoff returns aren’t really common anymore, there’s still the punt return unit: “I’d like to see more coming out of the punt returns to flip field position…you have a good defense, so they’re gonna punt a lot,” Brown said.
Brown thinks that with a defense this solid and a question mark at the quarterback position, every point will be valuable, and with the Bears giving up an average of only 12 points a game this season, there is merit to what he is saying. Brown, Forte, Kreutz, and Briggs all know a little something about special teams: when they played for the Bears, Chicago had one of the best special teams units in football under Dave Toub.
Can the 2019 Bears Have an Elite Special Teams Unit?
GettyChicago Bears punter Pat O’Donnell
Toub, now the special teams coach at Kansas City, turned the Bears’ unit into the league’s best during his time in Chicago. Yes, Toub had arguably the best return man of all time in Devin Hester, but he also had personnel around him that changed constantly, and he managed to keep his units tight year after year.
The Bears’ current special teams coach, Chris Tabor, is nowhere near as skilled as Toub is–Toub has been in discussions for a head coaching job for years now–but Tabor has a good set of players to work with. The Bears currently have All-Pro returner Tarik Cohen fielding punts and Cordarrelle Patterson receiving kickoffs. Both are excellent returners capable of ridiculous speeds.
While the great majority of kickoffs are no longer returned/returnable, the Bears can still use their punter and return units more effectively to establish better field position. Giving quarterback Mitchell Trubisky a shorter field and asking him to get one or two first downs to put the team in field goal range to get three points–instead of a three and out deep in the Bears territory, which we have bee seeing a lot of–seems like a good way to help give the young quarterback time to adjust–if in fact that’s what he needs.
The Bears seem to have the makings for a solid special teams unit. They have players who are solid in punt coverage in Nick Kwiatkoski and Joel Iyiegbuniwe. Oh, and their punter also seems to be having a career year.
Pat O’Donnell is Coming Off a Career Game
GettyChicago Bears punter Pat O’Donnell
Punter Pat O’Donnell is coming off a game in which he booted a career-long 75-yard punt, averaging 57.4 yards per punt against Denver. An assist from the altitude or not, if O’Donnell can keep punting the ball ridiculous distances, the Bears will benefit in every phase of the game. They also seem to have a big legged kicker now.
Eddy Piñeiro, who is a perfect 4-4 on field goals this year, (and is 2-2 from 50+ yards) has also been a pleasant surprise. After nailing the game-winning field goal against Denver, Nagy noted that Piñeiro definitely has something behind his kicks: “You could tell the second that ball left his foot yesterday, you could hear the thump and you knew that ball was going through,” Nagy said.
The Bears should try to test Piñeiro’s leg this season, just to see how big of a leg he really has. The sky could be the limit for Piñeiro–and this special teams unit.