Chicago Bears wide receivers coach Mike Furrey made his desires clear at the start of the 2019 offseason. If the offense wanted to be great, they needed to improve their depth at wide receiver. Lots of teams have 2-3 good targets at that position. However, the best ones go 4, 5, or even 6 deep. This makes it far easier to survive injury setbacks and also gives more diversity to the scheme as a whole.
This is why the Bears were so aggressive at that position in the spring. Not only did they sign free agents Cordarrelle Patterson and Marvin Hall. They also drafted Riley Ridley in the 4th round. Together with Javon Wims and highly-touted undrafted free agent Emanuel Hall they suddenly have more options than they know what to do with. Something that seems impossible to think about for this organization.
All the while, optimism continues for others already established on the roster. Allen Robinson was really starting to dominate towards the end of last season. Anthony Miller had seven touchdown catches and that was with one bad shoulder. A problem that has since been corrected with surgery. He's expected to be ready for training camp.
Furrey though thinks people better not overlook another name on the roster. One he believes is poised for a big year in Taylor Gabriel as Arthur Arkush of Pro Football Weekly explained.
Chicago Bears could see more big plays from Gabriel this year
Furrey is of the belief that Gabriel was stuck in the old mentality he'd had during his time in Atlanta. One where his defined role was as a complementary player used to get the occasional splash play. Meanwhile, guys like Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu were doing the heavy lifting. He never really considered the possibility that he can reach beyond such boundaries.
“I’m going to be absolutely honest with you: I believe he surprised himself.
What I’m proud about him right now at this moment is he’s now come back with a different mentality,” Furrey said. “Now it’s, 'this is my role. This is what I want to do for our football team. Now I want to get better every single day. Now I want to learn the mental part of the game.'
Not just understand that he can outrun everybody — which we all know that he can do. Everybody else does, too, so you better have another attribute, another trait to your game that separates you with that ability. And I’m really proud of him right now. How he has come back this year compared to when he showed up last year, it’s very respected.”
There is no question that Gabriel is fast. The one thing he hadn't yet mastered was the details of the position. Sharp route running and subtle setup moves to gain space. Defenses were able to contain his speed with heavy zone coverages but over the course of the year, it seemed like he started to figure out how to exploit them.
Coming into this offseason he had that confidence building already. Not to mention a further mastery of the system. So what Furrey says isn't wrong. Gabriel may be primed for a bigger slice of the pie this year than people may realize.
