Best and Worst of the first half of the season

[adam]

Technically, halftime of this Sunday's game will be the exact halfway point of the season, but with the bye already past, we are sort of at that point now in terms of calendar days.

At 5-3, what are some of your bests and worsts for this team so far?

For me, the best "best" is Ben Johnson. He is really exceeding expectations in almost every possible way. He is a maniac. He is the anti-Flus and something this team has lacked since Lovie or even Ditka. 

On offense, I really like the balance of the offense (run vs pass, with no one player being targeted too much). 3 players have 30+ receptions, 6 with 20+ targets, which includes 4x 100-yd receiving games from Odunze, Burden, and Loveland. 8 different players have a receiving TD (including Williams). 

The O-Line, especially Wright, who is playing at an All-Pro level, have been playing at a high level. Thuney, Dalman, and even Jackson are really coming around. They have facilitated 3x 100-yd Rushing games from Swift and Monangai. 

Of late, I have also been impressed with Monangai and Loveland. Hopefully they can keep up the production. 

The worst on offense is probably the LT position and Cole Kmet's production. Kmet is 7th on the team in receptions, only 1 more than Monangai. Oz is probably 3rd for me as I was expecting more out of him with how he looked in the offseason and the number of targets he has received so far (2nd most on the team). 

On defense, Byard and Edmunds have been the best players on a unit that is struggling. Byard is playing at an All-Pro level.

The worst have been McCloud, Brisker, and Billings. I expected more out of Brisker and Billings (they were supposedly the missing pieces last year), and I didn't expect McCloud to be the worst cover CB in the NFL when targeted.  They really miss Jaylon, and Stevenson did not seem like the same player prior to missing the BAL game.

Special Teams as a whole though, is probably my worst "worst". Holy crap they are bad. They are terrible in kick coverage, blocking for FGs, kicking FGs, and outside of 2-3 punts all year, Taylor has again shown he was a waste of a 4th round pick. The league average per punt is 47.9, Taylor is at 48.5. The ironic thing for him is he is the same exact punter from last year in terms of distance. The league average last year was 47.6, he was at 47.7.  Santos has missed 3 kicks with a long of 52. That is embarrassing. Moody was cut for missing 2 kicks in a game SF won lol, then he makes 8 of 9 for the Bears. I would rather have Moody than Santos the rest of the way. 

Honorable mention for worst is Richard Hightower. I still do not understand how this guy is employed. He is a big reason why the ST unit is so bad. Hopefully they can improve to just be average the rest of the way. Just don't lose games for the team.