I'm Still Excited About The 2018 Chicago Bears

Sunday night's game against the Green Bay Packers was not ideal for the Chicago Bears. It was ideal for the first 35 minutes of the game as they cruised to a 20-0 lead and everything was wonderful in this crazy world that we live in. Then, things went to shit, and um, well, shit, everybody knows what happened, and the Bears are now 0-1. That outcome wasn't ideal, but I'm still pretty excited about the Chicago Bears this year.

First off, there is Khalil Mack who more than lived up to the hype surrounding his arrival in a trade last week. Even in limited time, he was a menace on the field, getting sacks and interceptions and touchdowns too. His meaningful damage came in the first half, but even a tired Mack caused disruption with pressures in the second half. As he gets up to game speed, he's only going to be more terrifying, which is incredibly exciting.

Speaking of the defense, Akiem Hicks was pretty damn dominant as well early on in the game. He was causing havoc by crushing the pocket, and he is creating a pick your poison situation where you can focus on blocking Hicks or you can focus on blocking Mack, but it's going to be really tough to block both.

On the less positive side, Leonard Floyd showed nothing in this game. The athleticism is evident, but I still haven't seen enough in his pass rushing techniques to get excited. He'll get some sacks on speed rushes, but until he can translate that speed into a respectable bull rush move, I don't know how dangerous he is going to be.

But the Bears should definitely play Roquan Smith more. Nick Kwiatkoski is a capable backup, but he simply doesn't have the athleticism to play linebacker as teams will continually expose him. Roquan is a monster who has every physical trait you could possibly want in a modern day linebacker. Give me more Roquan.

Oh, and the most obvious thing to point out on the defense. If Kyle Fuller catches that ball that hit him in the chest, the Bears are not only 1-0, but I can guarantee that people would be talking about the Bears as the favorite in the division. I'm not necessarily saying that people should be saying that, but people love making broad proclamations after one week.

On the offensive side, you're not going to believe this, but I won't start with Mitch Trubisky. Let's instead take a step back and truly enjoy the greatness of Jordan Howard. For some reason, it seemed that everybody wanted to toss him aside to get more Tarik Cohen in the offense. But Howard serves a huge role for this team. He is the bellcow back, and there is no reason that he shouldn't seen the majority of snaps. He did everything he could to win the game for the Bears on their second-to-last drive, and had they trusted him more, he probably could have iced the game away.

Okay, now let's talk about Mitch Trubisky. He showed good athleticism, movement in the pocket, and threw some excellent balls, but in the second half, he tightened up and refused to take chances. I saw him fire balls down the field in college, so I'm hoping this is just an adjustment period to not having a ton of experience and being in a brand new offense. With Allen Robinson being a player who has shown that he can be a top receiver in the NFL, and with all the rave reviews about Anthony Miller, let's hope Trubisky uses those assets to open up the offense in week two.

Right now, the Bears are 0-1, but winning in Green Bay is never easy, and although it seems like one that got away, the important thing is to see how they bounce back, because 15-1 still ain't too bad of a season. Go Bears.

2018 Chicago Bears Preview

As high as I am on Mitch Trubisky, even I kind of realized that the playoffs were likely out of reach for the Chicago Bears this season. Then, the Bears made the blockbuster of all blockbuster trades and got Khalil Mack. Now I am not saying playoffs, but I am definitely whispering it. Let's start with the new addition, because I don't think people realize how good Khalil Mack is.

KHALIL MACK IS REALLY FREAKING GOOD. I know that sounds fairly simplistic, but the Raiders defense was absolutely awful. They had zero impact talent around Mack, so all teams had to do was strategize to minimize Mack's damage, and he still messed up people's worlds. There is actual talent on the Bears defense. Akiem Hicks is one of the more underrated players on defense, and if they put him and Mack on the same side, offenses are going to have some serious issues blocking them. Also, you can't totally key on Mack, because if Leonard Floyd stays healthy, he has shown enough that he could be incredibly dangerous if offenses consistently put a blocker on an island and try to contain him. Mack was incredible on the Raiders, but he is going to be even better with the talent that the Bears have around him.

And next to him, they have Roquan Smith, who, by all indications, is going to fulfill the hype that was set forth before the draft and be a pro bowl middle linebacker who can do a little bit of everything on the defensive side of the ball.

In the secondary, there are no stars, but Kyle Fuller has developed into a very good and possibly great corner. Eddie Jackson showed a ton of potential as a rookie, and considering that it was the first year coming off of a major injury, he could take a leap in his second year. The Bears have solid talent and depth around them, so the secondary should be above average at least.

Offense is the big question mark with what the Bears can expect from Trubisky, but as I mentioned last week, I'm all aboard the Trubisky Train. I have seen enough of him to be impressed, and Khalil Mack has already said how impressed he is with him (well, he was talking about how tan he was, but it still counts). The Bears have both the bellcow in Jordan Howard and the change-of-pace in Tarik Cohen. The receiving options are massively upgraded, and the offensive line should show improvement with more experience, better coaching, and hopefully a healthy Kyle Long. Plus, there will actually be a gameplan on offense, so that's going to be incredible to watch.

My overall Bears preview is Mitch Trubisky, can he be great? Probably not this year, but I truly believe he will take a major step forward this season. Also, KHALIL MACK. I cannot stress enough how big of a difference he is going to make. I know he was never with the Bears before, but there's really only way to end this post.

PREDICTION: 19-0, Super Bowl Champions, every starter also named a Pro Bowler.

Breaking Down the Chicago Bears First Round Pick: Georgia LB - Leonard Floyd

The NFL Draft has come and gone, and it appears that the Bears have a plan in place. Did I agree with that plan at every twist and turn? No, not really, but I also really enjoyed some of their moves so it all balances out. And they were active, and that definitely made for an exciting weekend. But what's done is done. The picks I like will obviously work out, and hopefully my genius fails me on the picks that I didn't like. But let's break things down, starting with the Bears first round pick, Leonard Floyd, an outside linebacker (kind of) out of Georgia.

So, let me just be up front and say that this pick did not excite me when I first heard it. Grabbing an edge rusher who only manged 4.5 sacks seems like a pretty big gamble, especially when they traded up to do it. On the positive side, his athleticism is definitely there as he tested very well at the combine. I don't like to put a ton of stock in the combine, but I also think it's silly to ignore it. This was one of the most polarizing picks of the first round, so I took a look at his games against Auburn, Alabama, and Missouri to see if there was some hidden breakout potential, or if the Bears were just desperate to see something that wasn't actually there.

The first word that jumps out to describe him is long. 6'6" is really damn tall, and it shows up before his first play. But with that length, you can also tells how skinny he is. 244 sounds big, but on that sort of frame, he could definitely use some more bulk.

Once I started watching plays, it was pretty shocking how often he not only didn't rush the passer, but how often they had him lined up way away from the action to cover a slot receiver. That'd be fine if he was an asset in coverage, but he wasn't that good in coverage. At that point, the alarms are going off, because if he's not that good in coverage, but he's worthy of a top-10 pick as an edge rusher, you'd think the Georgia coaching staff would be, you know, smart enough to use him as an edge rusher. I mean, yeah, Mark Richt did get fired, but he also got hired by somebody else, so he can't possibly be that stupid. It seems the Bears are relying on the fact that Richt may be the worst coach in America, and that doesn't sound like the best plan to me.

I'm not going to dwell long on how he did against the run, as it usually wasn't pretty, and there was one play where Derrick Henry literally bowled right over him. Sadly, against Alabama, that was one of his more notable plays because it was one of the few times where he made any impact at all. Here's another chance for Floyd to square off with Henry.

Uh, yeah, that is not ideal. The Bears aren't getting him for his run stopping abilities, so I'd rather focus on where the Bears want him to win than where even the optimistic Bears expect him to struggle.

So, as for when he did pass rush, the issue that I had heard is that guys were able to lock onto him once they got their hands on him. And that definitely seemed to be the case against Alabama.

Here he is rushing against the right tackle, and once the tackle gets his hands on him, he looks absolutely helpless to break free.

Even the times where he successfully rushed the quarterback didn't inspire much confidence that this is a beast just waiting to bust out of his cage.

I mean, it shows nice hustle, and yes, you can give credit to his threat of speed for the tackle trying to drop that far back, but it's nothing that will work on a consistent basis.

One thing that I saw show up a few times was that Floyd did a really great job of exploding off the snap, to the point where I thought he was offside, but it was just really good anticipation on his part. It might lead to an occasional offsides call, but you like to see that sort of aggressiveness.

I had watched a lot of Leonard Floyd in a very short period of time. Honestly, it got pretty boring. It was so much ho-hum bullshit that I was losing interest. But my patience paid off with a "Holy shit" moment against Missouri.

Finally, I could see what the Bears saw. That is a sick ass spin move.

And since he is an athletic freak, all it takes is a simple speed rush to pair that up with...

And you start thinking maybe. Maybe this guy could be the double digit sack rusher that the team needs.

Although I can recognize that the potential exists, I'm still not sold. I feel like his age is a huge factor in prognosticating his potential. Floyd is going to be 24 before the first game of the season. I'm not against older prospects, but I am against older prospects that you expect to still blossom into something special.

I think it's pretty clear that I don't love the pick. Can you convince yourself that there's something there? Definitely, but asking for an older prospect to finally turn those tools into consistent production is not a gamble I would want to take with the ninth overall pick in the draft. The good news is that I feel a whole lot better about how the Bears followed up their first round pick, but we'll get to that in a couple days.