It's impossible not to enjoy Bears head coach John Fox's Monday morning rant about hot-dog-laden press boxes second-guessing quarterback play. For all we know, he's right. Perhaps backup quarterback Brian Hoyer was never supposed to be looking to receiver Alshon Jeffery on a crucial fourth down, and perhaps that is why he was wide open down the sideline at the bottom of this GIF:
But Jeffery's pouting after that play isn't really about the one snap. It's about a bizarre Bears offense that has reduced his usage rate drastically this season.
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Jeffery, in Chicago's judgment, was worth a franchise tag this offseason. The second he signed it, he was guaranteed $14.5 million for this season. Over his first three seasons, Jeffery was targeted an average of 9.46 times per game. This season, Jeffery has been targeted 31 times in five games. This despite a DVOA of 39.3 percent—good for third in the NFL through Week 5. Jeffery has been targeted fewer times than any of Football Outsiders' top 20 receivers in DYAR, a measure of volume-based effectiveness. League target leader Mike Evans has 60 targets, nearly double Jeffery.Some of this may be Jeffery playing through injury. His hamstring has been dinged up, and he's been healthy to play but perhaps not healthy enough to be completely effective. And yet, when Kevin White went down with injury and Eddie Royal was barely healthy enough to play in Week 5, Jeffery was still just the fourth most targeted player on the Bears—behind Cameron Meredith, who had 11 career receptions before this season.Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains has only two years of experience in the NFL, but since Fox is a defensive mind, and Adam Gase is now the Miami Dolphins head coach, he's the top offensive mind in the room. Without saying anything about the quality of his coaching, he demonstrated very even target splits with the Titans in 2012-13. This may just be a case where the coordinator wants the ball spread around.
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On the other hand, let's look at some of these brilliant targets that the other receivers are getting. Here's Kevin White, looking like he barely knew where he was going, and is therefore barely even in the frame:
And here's a lovely Brian Hoyer dump-off pass:
And how about Eddie Royal, not realizing he's running a deep route?
Look, the Bears aren't actually doing that bad considering the offense they have: they're 15th in offensive DVOA through Week 5 despite changes at quarterback and running back, in addition to trying to integrate former Packers lineman Josh Sitton into the starting lineup right away. What's interesting, though, is that on a team where none of the skill position players besides Jeffery are anything near a dominant force, this team seems to almost be willfully slanting their offense away from him.
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But Jeffery's pouting after that play isn't really about the one snap. It's about a bizarre Bears offense that has reduced his usage rate drastically this season.Jeffery, in Chicago's judgment, was worth a franchise tag this offseason. The second he signed it, he was guaranteed $14.5 million for this season. Over his first three seasons, Jeffery was targeted an average of 9.46 times per game. This season, Jeffery has been targeted 31 times in five games. This despite a DVOA of 39.3 percent—good for third in the NFL through Week 5. Jeffery has been targeted fewer times than any of Football Outsiders' top 20 receivers in DYAR, a measure of volume-based effectiveness. League target leader Mike Evans has 60 targets, nearly double Jeffery.Some of this may be Jeffery playing through injury. His hamstring has been dinged up, and he's been healthy to play but perhaps not healthy enough to be completely effective. And yet, when Kevin White went down with injury and Eddie Royal was barely healthy enough to play in Week 5, Jeffery was still just the fourth most targeted player on the Bears—behind Cameron Meredith, who had 11 career receptions before this season.Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains has only two years of experience in the NFL, but since Fox is a defensive mind, and Adam Gase is now the Miami Dolphins head coach, he's the top offensive mind in the room. Without saying anything about the quality of his coaching, he demonstrated very even target splits with the Titans in 2012-13. This may just be a case where the coordinator wants the ball spread around.
And here's a lovely Brian Hoyer dump-off pass:
And how about Eddie Royal, not realizing he's running a deep route?
Look, the Bears aren't actually doing that bad considering the offense they have: they're 15th in offensive DVOA through Week 5 despite changes at quarterback and running back, in addition to trying to integrate former Packers lineman Josh Sitton into the starting lineup right away. What's interesting, though, is that on a team where none of the skill position players besides Jeffery are anything near a dominant force, this team seems to almost be willfully slanting their offense away from him.