While Earl Bennett is slowly making his way back from a concussion, the Chicago Bears are actually trying to trade him even though making these kind of deals at this stage of the season is quite difficult.
There isn’t a lot of depth at wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, and Bennett was actually their number two receiver last season in terms of receptions (third overall on the team) with 29 catches in 29 games, for 375 yards and a couple of touchdowns.
But the Chicago Bears are changing their offense, and Bennett, who has become less and less productive with each passing season. He caught 54 passes for 717 yards in 2009. It went down to 46 and 561 in 2010; 24 and 381 in 2011 and even worse last season, not playing a full 16-game season since 2009.
The plan is for Alshon Jeffery to become the team’s number two wide receiver. Beyond that? Matt Forte is a big part of the passing game, maybe even more than last season when he caught 44 passes for 340 yards and a touchdown. There’s also rookie wide receiver Marquess Wilson who has a very good chance of becoming the team’s number 3. Then there’s Martellus Bennett, their newly acquired tight end who should be the one that fixes all their problems at the position, but he hasn’t been seen much during the preseason.
One of the main goals this season for the Bears is to stop having Jay Cutler look from Brandon Marshall at every opportunity he gets, which made it a lot easier for teams to slow down the Bears’ passing game. Trestman is calling for more spreading of the ball, and a lot more passes in the backfield – keeping things short, fast and simple.
As for Bennett? There are teams who need help at wide receiver – Jets, Raiders, Chargers and Jags. For now, making a trade at this stage of the preseason is extremely difficult, and the Bears might have to hang on to Bennett for a little while longer.