Rookie drafts may be winding down, but it’s important to not completely switch off from your dynasty league in the offseason. Now is a perfect time to take an honest appraisal of your dynasty team and consider its strengths and weaknesses ahead of the season. In this series of division-by-division Dynasty Primers, we’ll look at how each NFL team stacks up and what buying and selling opportunities might be appropriate.
- Dynasty Roundup & Trade Advice: NFC North | AFC North
- Dynasty Trade Value Chart
- Dynasty Rookie Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
- Dynasty Rookie Draft Sleepers: QB | RB | WR | TE
- Latest Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft
Dynasty Draft Strategy & Trade Advice
Chicago Bears
The Bears handled the 2023 NFL Draft excellently, trading back from the first overall pick and gaining a true WR1 in DJ Moore as well as a top offensive lineman in Darnell Wright. The Bears also acquired enough picks for future drafts, so they have an escape route if Justin Fields fails to work out. Fields came within 63 yards of breaking the single-season rushing yardage record for a quarterback and what’s even more impressive is that he was barely rushing for the first five weeks of the season. Through those first five weeks, Justin Fields looked like a complete bust in the NFL. His passing left a lot to be desired and he finished the season ranking 56th in EPA per pass attempt out of 57 quarterbacks with 50 or more attempts. However, Fields was able to turn things around from a fantasy perspective with his elite run game and it’s not hyperbolic to say he’s a top-three dual threat right now. Fields will likely see an increase in passing completions this year, simply because 12.8 per game is virtually unheard of in the NFL and DJ Moore should help with that. It’s realistic to expect regression from Fields in the running game after so many of his points were accrued from long and miraculous rushing touchdowns, but if Fields can make a leap as a passer, he can still be a top-six fantasy option.
David Montgomery moved on in free agency, leaving the Bears with a duo of D’Onta Foreman and Khalil Herbert. They used a round-four pick on Roschon Johnson, who could immediately be the best pass-catching option of the trio. With three players competing for touches, this backfield is going to be tricky for fantasy, but Herbert has flashed at times. He out-carried Montgomery 5.7 yards per carry to 4.0, along with having a big run rate of 5.88% compared to Montgomery’s 1.55%. Herbert could be the lead back, but he’s never shown much pass-catching ability or shined as a blocker, which will open up opportunities for Johnson who yielded good results in college in those areas. Foreman is a good option but he will be the thorn in the backfield; the Bears have little invested in him and he will likely struggle for fantasy relevance. Herbert is a better option for win-now teams and Johnson is a good bet to see increased workloads over the next two years.
The Bears’ acquisition of a truly talented wide receiver in DJ Moore might mean more for their actual NFL production than fantasy results. Moore is a good receiver, but he doesn’t earn targets in the same that way a player like DeAndre Hopkins or Tyreek Hill can. He has also never been reliable as a touchdown scorer, managing 21 in his last five seasons combined, which puts him firmly outside the top-thirty touchdown scorers at the position. The Bears passed the ball at an unfathomably low level in 2022 and some positive regression is coming, but it’s tricky projecting too huge a leap from 12.8 completions a game. In every league, there is someone who believes in DJ Moore and if you can get a first-round pick for him, it’s tempting to do so.
Darnell Mooney showed us that he’s not a true WR1 in 2022, although there were occasional flashes and a couple of highlight-worthy catches on deep balls. Overall, this Bears offense wasn’t functional enough in the passing game to support him and he wasn’t able to command targets in the way some had hoped. Mooney might be better suited to being a WR2 or possibly WR3 in an offense and his startup ADP of 140.0 feels reasonable. The Bears trade of what turned out to be the 32nd overall pick for Chase Claypool looked bad at the time and looks even worse in hindsight. Claypool totaled 13 catches for 115 yards in games for the Bears and it seemed unclear how they wanted to use him. Neither Mooney or Claypool have much trade value and it’s hard to project them for anything but boom-or-bust roles in 2023. The Bears also added Tyler Scott in the fourth round, which is typically not a great area for fantasy-viable wide receivers; he is an exciting but undersized prospect who will face an uphill battle to be relevant.
Cole Kmet had an up-and-down year, managing eight finishes outside the top twenty at the position and scoring less than 10 PPR points in 75% of his appearances. He did, however, have a two-week spell where he scored 45.4 PPR points. The problem with those points is that you likely had Kmet on the bench for at least one of those games after he scored only 16.8 PPR points in the three prior weeks combined. Kmet’s 19.3% target share was the seventh-highest among all tight ends, but his 1.2 yards per route run was 43rd among tight ends with 10 or more receptions. Simply put, Kmet was unable to turn targets into production despite working against very little pass-catching competition in Chicago. Especially now with the arrivals of DJ Moore and Robert Tonyan, there is no reason to believe Kmet can take a leap forward. If you can move Kmet for a pick that could turn into one of the rookies with upside, that’s a move to consider.
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