The best word to describe the 2019 DeKalb Bears is potential.
This is a team filled with talent that has the potential to flip the numbers from a year ago and make a playoff spot when all is said and done. Just a few plays last year kept them from being 6-4 instead of 4-6, and those same few plays kept them out of the postseason in 2018.
The talent from last year is still there, it is just a matter of whether these boys learned from their mistakes last year, and have the mindset to not make them again.
This is a team that will need career years from its leaders to get there. QB Kole Dooley and running back Timon Proby will need to put up huge numbers to get the Bears where they want to finish. Dooley put up over 1,000 yards combined last season, and odds are he will improve his numbers in 2019. He has a steady arm and is a threat when he runs, so as the field general, his play will dictate what the Bears do this season.
Proby also had over 1,000 yards of offense last season and will have to repeat that effort as well if the Bears want to see their win-loss numbers flip.
Their efforts will be significantly aided by some big boys all around them with linemen like Londell Howard, Christopher McDaniel, Carter Wafford, Jonathan Briggs and Whit Sparks making holes for them to run through. JeMichael Wherry might be running through those holes as well, and he stands to be an option for Dooley to take some of the pressure off of Proby.
In the air, Dooley will have targets like A.J. Burgin and Riley Starrett that can catch the ball and then do something with it.
