Ben Johnson has said he wants the Chicago Bears offense to be the highest-scoring of all-time. That's obviously a bold goal, and if we are being honest, probably not one the Bears will hit this year.
Don't get me wrong, I expect the Bears offense to be excellent. I expect it to be a top 5 offense in the league. But being the greatest of all-time is something that will, more likely than not, not happen.
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But that's okay; it's going to be a really fun season watching this offense and seeing what Caleb Williams can do in the passing game.
But that makes you think, if this Bears offense is as explosive as Ben Johnson thinks it can be, that would certainly mean that the passing yardage is going to be higher than we've ever seen in Chicago.
This certainly feels like the season a healthy Caleb Williams would become the first Bears QB to surpass 4,000 yards passing, and if he does, we know that means 4,000+ receiving yards on the other side of the ball.
That leads us to today's question.
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What players will have over 1,000 yards receiving this year?
This makes for a fun debate. We all love Jahdae Walker, but I think even the biggest Walker fans understand that he's not going north of 1,000 yards. Neither is Kalif Raymond. Neither is Cole Kmet.
The Bears have three players capable of going over 1,000 yards: Luther Burden, Rome Odunze, and Colston Loveland.
Which ones go over? Is it all three?
Answer:As long as the receiving core is relatively healthy, I think you can definitely make an argument that any of the three can do it. I will start with Rome Odunze. I think Rome falls short of the 1,000-yard line. I think he's a key part of the offense, but I think he falls more into a secondary role this year amongst this trio and probably ends up around 800 yards or so.
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Last year, Loveland had 713 yards receiving. Most of those came over the last 12 games of the season, and if you average his numbers over those 12 games and project them to 17, that number actually jumps to 930. So does that mean Loveland goes over 1,000 yards? If he plays 17 games, I think he absolutely does. But I do have a hunch that Loveland misses just a couple of games. If that's the case and he plays like 15 games, I think he ends up coming up just short and has about 950 yards or so on the season.
That leaves Luther Burden, and that's where things change. I think Burden does, in fact, become the explosive playmaker this team has needed, and he is the guy that goes over 1,000 yards on the season. I think it won't be like 1500 yards, but I do think he gets somewhere around 1100 yards.
So while three players are capable of going over 1000 yards, I think Burden is the only one. That isn't being pessimistic; that's being optimistic about the rest of the weapons.
If my yardage guesses are correct, those three tally about 2850 total receiving yards. Let's say Raymond and Kmet each get about 400 yards. If Walker gets around 300 yards, Swift gets around 250 yards. Sam Roush and Savion Thomas each just get 200 yards; that's 4700 passing yards!
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This isn't the Cincinnati Bengals with Chase and Higgins and not much else. The Bears have a lot of talented skill players on offense, and because of it, Burden is the only guy who will go north of 1,000 yards.
What do you say, Bears fans? Do you agree? How many players get 1000 yards this season? Sound off in the comments below!
