Chicago Bears Week 12: Rookie Report

Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

After Marc Trestman decided to bench most of the Bears rookies in order to save his job for another week against the Vikings, I had debated cancelling the rookie report since it seemed like overkill if just a couple of rookies were going to play. I wrote one last week, but it’s pretty short. Someone from up top (Emery, a McCaskey) must have set Trestman straight because the rookies were back to playing their usual allotment of snaps this week, hence the rookie report is back.

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The Bears weren’t very impressive over all in their 21-13 home win over the 2-9 Tampa Bay Bucs, but there were some rookies who played rather well and certainly contributed to the victory. It makes such little sense to me that Trestman would bench the rookies in the first place as they have been providing quality depth for the Bears all season and in many cases outplaying the starters. After watching Trestman’s play-calling on offense the last week, I have decided to stop trying to figure out anything the man does because he’s clearly a loon. Here is my breakdown of how the Bears rookies preformed in their 21-13 wins over the Bucs.

Week 12 Rookie Report:

CB Kyle Fuller – Was roasted on a stop-and-go route by star rookie Mike Evans in the first half before leaving the game with an injured knee. Outside of the Evans TD, he’s been scoring on everyone, Fuller played pretty well in the first half. He had 6 tackles against the run despite playing less than half of the game and only gave up two other short catches. Hopefully Fuller will be back against the Lions on Thursday because they will need him badly against Megatron and Golden Tate.

G/T Michael Ola –  Gave up a sack and a hurry on Cutler, but that’s it for the game and the Bucs D-line is one of their few strengths. Ola didn’t dominate in either pass pro or run blocking, but he was solid in both which is a big improvement over former RT Jordan Mills, who struggled badly in pass pro (every week) and with dumb penalties. Ola has been a clear improvement all around over Mills and hopefully he will keep the position for the rest of the season. With the loss of LG Matt Slausen, the Bears may move Ola back to LG where he has had his two best games this season (8.0 cumulative grade over 2 games from PFF) and may ultimately be his best position.

DT Ego Ferguson – Got back in the lineup after his surprise benching last week and seemed to take a few steps back to his early season form. Ferguson was pushed around a little in the run game and moved out of the hole at least twice that I noticed, but did make one nice stop on an inside run. Ferguson had been improving steadily every week and I’m not blaming it on Trestman for giving him a week off (after a bye) but Ferguson looked rusty and struggled more than he has since the first few weeks of the season. With the strong play of Stephen Paea, Ego is going to need to play much better to see the field the next few weeks.

DT Will Sutton – Starting 3-tech Jeremiah Ratliff is 33 years old, so no matter how well he plays, Ratliff is going to need a few breathers every game. Sutton took advantage of his 31 snaps on Sunday playing well against the pass and especially the run. His solid run defense has been a bit of a surprise considering he was pegged as a guy who was better against the pass than the run coming out of the draft. Sutton has played pretty well agianst both this season, but I would like to see some more pressure on the QB. Either way, Sutton looks like a solid rotation piece moving forward and potentially a starter at the 3-tech once Ratliff decides to hang up his cleats.

RB Ka’Deem Carey – Got a few more snaps this week (8) than last week (4), but still no carries.

S Brock Vereen – Got twice as many snaps this week (18) than last week, giving Ryan Mundy a breather at strong safety. Like most of the season, Vereen played solid mistake free football. He might not have the size to be an impact run stopper, but Vereen is solid in coverage and has shown the versatility to play nickle corner, free safety and strong safety adequately this season. I don’t know if Vereen will ever develop into a starting caliber player, but he deserves more snaps to find out and at worst he should provide valuable secondary depth next year.