Five Bears under maximum pressure going into 2020 season

Some Bears didn’t play up to expectations — or their contracts, in some cases — last season and go into 2020 looking to show they’re better than that. In other cases, newcomers walk into highly scrutinized positions.

SHARE Five Bears under maximum pressure going into 2020 season
mack__11_.jpg

Mack had 8.5 sacks last season, the lowest total since his rookie year.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

The Bears went into last season with Super Bowl expectations, but the pressure actually might be higher this year.

The team’s entire power structure and blueprint is at stake after falling flat at 8-8 last season. General manager Ryan Pace is seemingly on his last chance, and coach Matt Nagy’s job also will be in question if things don’t turn around.

Expect a lot of “now or never” or “do or die” quotes this season from the players, too. There are many substandard performances lingering from last season, and they’ll be out to show they’re better than that. Here are five players facing the most pressure in 2020:

OLB Khalil Mack

Few players in the NFL will be under as much scrutiny this season as Mack, and that’s part of the deal when you carry a $26.6 million salary-cap hit — the biggest cap number for any non-quarterback in 2020. On top of that, the Bears gave up two first-round picks to acquire Mack.

The trade and enormous contract looked well worth it the first season, when Mack elevated the Bears’ defense from good to great, but it wasn’t so obvious last season. Without another major pass-rush threat working with him — Akiem Hicks was injured and Leonard Floyd was a dud — Mack had 8œ sacks and five forced fumbles. That’s a solid year, but it’s not the elite production the Bears are paying for and expecting.

Mack is counting on Hicks coming back healthy and newcomer Robert Quinn being a force, but he needs to be a game-wrecker even if those things don’t happen.

RB Tarik Cohen

How does an offensive weapon such as Cohen go from leading the team in total yards in 2018 to being just another guy in 2019? That was a mystery neither Cohen nor Nagy could clear up last season, though both claim they’ve figured it all out this offseason.

Cohen was incredible in his first season in Nagy’s offense: 725 yards receiving, 444 yards rushing and eight touchdowns. His total yardage dropped nearly in half in 2019, despite a similar number of opportunities. There were back-to-back weeks in which Nagy played him just 16 snaps.

The pressure on Cohen is twofold. He has the potential to be one of the most electric playmakers in the game, and the Bears’ offense is desperate for that type of talent. He also has a tremendous amount of money at stake. Cohen had hoped to get a long-term extension this offseason, a source said, but the team probably will want to see what it gets from him in 2020 first. This is the last year of his rookie contract, and he’ll play for just $2.1 million with the intent of proving he’s worth much more.

TE Jimmy Graham

The two-year, $16 million contract the Bears gave Graham is viewed widely as one of the most surprising deals of the offseason. It’s close to the same annual salary the Packers gave him two years ago, and there has been significant decline since then. In this case, there’s much more pressure on Pace than the player.

That said, Graham is making the final stand for his career. At 33, he wants to keep playing, but it’s hard to imagine any team giving him a shot in 2021 if this season doesn’t go well. A handful of tight ends in the last decade — Jason Witten, Ben Watson and Antonio Gates, for example — have remained productive into their mid- or late 30s, so it’s possible.

Graham was still a game-changer in 2016 for the Seahawks, but he has dipped to averages of 50 catches, 534 yards and five touchdowns over the last three seasons. The Packers benched him at one point last season and cut him a few months ago with one year left on his deal. He has a lot to prove.

LT Charles Leno

One of the most persistent concerns of the offseason is how the Bears plan to vastly improve their offensive line play without changing the personnel. The only potential new starter is former Seahawks first-round pick Germain Ifedi at right guard.

The most important piece of the line is left tackle Charles Leno. The Bears need him to be their best lineman. He was so frustrated with his play a month into last season that he said he needed to do “some real deep searching” during the bye week. He committed 12 accepted penalties last season, including seven calls for holding.

As a seventh-round pick, Leno is one of the Bears’ best recent draft gems, but signing him to a four-year, $37 million extension means he has to be a cornerstone of the line. His cap hit is $10.3 million in 2020, followed by $11.3 million in 2021. Leno certainly is worth that price at his best, but he has to find a way to get back there this season.

CB Jaylon Johnson

Hope you’re ready, kid. The Bears drafted Johnson 50th overall out of Utah in April, and he’s the youngest player on the roster at 21. Drafting a cornerback was part of the plan after the Bears said goodbye to veteran Prince Amukamara, a 31-year-old who would’ve made $9 million this season, but there’s little safety net for Johnson.

The Bears have Kyle Fuller on the outside and Buster Skrine underneath, but it looks like the plan is Johnson-or-bust at the other outside spot. The other competitors are Artie Burns (a first-round pick who sputtered with the Steelers) and Kevin Toliver (two career starts). Johnson needs to be an immediate starter.

Johnson has the talent and speed — he clocked at 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the combine. He had 11 pass breakups, including two interceptions, as a junior, and NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah rated him the 27th-best prospect overall. It’ll come down to how quickly he grasps the Bears’ scheme and adapts to facing NFL receivers.

The Latest
Steele held the Rangers to one run through 4 2/3 innings.
The Cubs opened the season against the reigning World Series champions in Texas.
Murder charges have been filed against suspect Christian I. Soto, 22. Investigators haven’t determined a motive for the attacks, but they say Soto had been smoking marijuana before the rampage.
To celebrate the historic coinciding of the emerging of two broods, artists can adopt a cicada for free in exchange for decorating it and displaying it publicly. Others can purchase the cicadas for $75.