Bears Blitz

Published by Matt Eurich on September 15, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

After an injury to Marquess Wilson during training camp, the Chicago Bears signed veteran Santonio Holmes to help provide depth to a wide receiver position that features Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery atop the depth chart but lacked much experience behind them.

With Marshall and Jeffery playing injured in the team’s win over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2, the Bears may need to find more ways to get Holmes involved in the offense.

During Holmes’ first four years in the league with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was one of the league’s most productive wide receivers.

Holmes was traded to the New York Jets after the 2010 season but was forced to miss the first four games due to a violation of the NFL‘s substance abuse policy.

After missing just those four games in 2010 and 2011, he was sidelined with a Lisfranc foot injury for the majority of 2012, struggled with the injury again in 2013 and saw a drop in production during his time in New York before being released this past March.

Despite not being as productive in recent years, there are still many ways in which he can develop into an X-factor in Chicago’s offense.

Utilize Him in Space

Coming off two down years in New York, there were concerns about whether or not Holmes still possessed the speed that made him so dangerous early in his career.

Since he did not sign with team until late in training camp, his first real opportunity to prove himself came against the Cleveland Browns in the fourth preseason game.

In his most extensive playing time of the preseason, Holmes turned this short pass into a 32-yard touchdown:

After the game, head coach Marc Trestman was pleased to see explosiveness from Holmes on the catch-and-run.

“We saw him take a short catch and turn it into a long gain,” Trestman told the media. “And that’s some of the explosion we’ve seen during practice.”

While that touchdown was against lower competition, Holmes proved he still has the speed to create separation against quick, younger defensive backs.

His snaps were limited in Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills, and both of his catches came on short passes with the cornerback playing off the line of scrimmage.

On his second catch of the afternoon, the Bears lined Holmes off to the left of the formation by himself:

Buffalo’s Leodis McKelvin played him five yards off the line of scrimmage, and Jay Cutler quickly hit Holmes on a slant route for the first down:

Even though Cutler only threw a five-yard pass, Holmes was able to pick up 13 yards and helped move the chains for the Bears offense.

With teams paying so much attention to Marshall and Jeffery, Holmes should be able to utilize his speed and elusiveness in bubble screens and short passes on the outside that give him the opportunity to beat defenders one-on-one.

Trust Him to Make the Big Play

Before his suspension and injury concerns in New York, Holmes became a household name with this terrific catch in Super Bowl XLIII which led to a Steelers victory and a Super Bowl MVP award:

With the Super Bowl on the line, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger not only trusted himself but Holmes’ ability to catch the football with both feet in bounds.

After securing the touchdown and winning the MVP award, Holmes commented that regardless of the fact that he did not achieve his personal goals for the season, he proved he was a guy who could be counted on when it mattered most.

“Things didn’t always go my way this season,” Holmes said after the Super Bowl. “I didn’t become a 1,000-yard receiver [Holmes had 821 yards on 55 receptions], but I always kept telling the coaches I wanted to be a playmaker. I wanted to be the guy they could trust in the key situations.”

His former head coach in New York, Rex Ryan, echoed Holmes’ comments on being a guy the team could trust in key situations.

“I’ve always admired his knack for making the clutch play,” Ryan told reporters. “He’s a tremendous competitor who wants the ball in his hands when the game is on the line.”

While the Bears already have two playmakers at the wide receiver position in Marshall and Jeffery, Holmes gives Cutler another reliable target when opposing defenses focus on slowing the starting duo down with double-teams.

Teams have found it difficult in the past year-plus to slow down both Marshall and Jeffery, but with the NFL evolving on a week-to-week basis, it is possible a time will come when the Bears will have to rely on someone other than their starting duo.

Despite limited production over the course of the past two seasons, Holmes still possesses the ability to come up big when his team needs him the most.

Highlight His Speed in the Jet Sweep

While not new to the game of football, the jet sweep has gained more popularity in recent years.

NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks recently broke down the basics of the play:

It’s an outside running play designed to get a running back or wide receiver to the edge of the defense following “jet” motion. The original jet sweep is executed with the quarterback taking the snap from under center before wheeling around to hand the ball off to a running back or receiver motioning across the formation from a wide alignment. When executed properly, the jet sweep allows the team’s speed guy to receive the handoff with a full head of steam, making it nearly impossible for the defense to keep him from turning the corner on the sweep.

The Bears utilized the play often last season with Jeffery, who picked up 105 rushing yards on 16 attempts.

Jeffery isn’t known as a speedster, yet the play was still effective because of the respect opposing defenses have for Marshall as well as running back Matt Forte.

Holmes does not possess the same speed he had when he entered the league, but Cutler praised his speed and explosiveness right after he signed with the team back in August:

He’s explosive. He’d probably be honest [and tell you] he’s a little bit rusty. He’s been out of football. But getting in and out of cuts, [he] catches the ball well, extremely explosive, fast. He’s exciting. It’s hard coming in where we are offensively and just kind of throwing him into the mix.

If the team opted to utilize his speed in the jet sweep, teams would then be forced to choose whether to defend Marshall and Jeffery or try to keep Holmes from getting to the edge and picking up big yards.

Even with a starting wide receiver duo like Marshall and Jeffery, Chicago still has a need for someone who can carry the load if either gets injured or an opposing defense is able to shut them down.

Holmes is not quite the same player he once was, but if the Bears can utilize him in space, trust him to make the big play and highlight his speed in the jet sweep, he has a real chance to be an X-factor in their offense this season.

Statistical information via email from the Chicago Bears or NFL.com.

Matt Eurich is an NFL/Chicago Bears Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.

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