Five Packers to watch vs. Bears in Week 15 matchup

3. Robert Tonyan

Roquan Smith was so many things for the Bears. He played the run with the best of them. His sideline-to-sideline speed allowed him to make plays all over the field. That same speed also helped Smith negate some holes in coverage over the middle of the field.

His backup, Kevin Pierre-Louis, does not possess the same skill set. Yes, he is fast and had a good game replacing Smith versus the Cowboys, but the Cowboys lacked the type of player to really attack the Bears middle. Jason Witten is an all-time great. But he’s well past his prime and doesn’t offer more than five-yard routes. The Packers have a player who can offer so much more and give the offense a big-time payer in the middle of the field: Robert Tonyan.

Tonyan may have been working his way up the depth chart before the game against Dallas. He seemed to be on par with playing time as Jimmy Graham in that game and the week prior. But a hip injury slowed down that development and Tonyan missed the next five games.

The hip injury looks to now be behind him and he should get the bulk of the playing time from here on out over Graham. Graham can and should have a role. His size and red-zone prowess have yet to manifest with the Packers, but that doesn’t mean it won’t. He has skills and attributes you can’t teach. The team needs to find better ways to take advantage of that. But Tonyan is younger, faster and can offer so much more.

With the need for more weapons on offense, now is the time to unleash Tonyan on defenses and see what he’s got.