Leonard Floyd: Trying to Quiet the Critics

Training Camp and Preseason

Training camp was rough for Floyd.  He left the very first practice of training camp on the back of a cart after suffering from an illness.  Of course, fans and the media called him out saying that he couldn’t handle being in the NFL that he was out of shape and that he was a disappointment.  It looked like he couldn’t even make it through a tough first practice.

Floyd’s struggles in camp didn’t end at the start of camp.  The first five practices of the camp saw Floyd get through only one session.  He went down with a shoulder injury during the early part of camp following his recovering from the illness that took him down at the beginning of camp.  His start was truly rough.

The struggle to stay healthy continued as Floyd suffered a hamstring injury on top of the other two issues he had early in training camp.  The word “bust” was being whispered in the media and with fans.  Could the Bears have made a mistake taking him or was this he just suffering from a case of bad luck?

The preseason games started and he participated in three out of the four games.  His only start came in the last game of the preseason against the Browns.  Floyd had less than ten tackles and managed to get half a sack in the preseason action.  It wasn’t a shining start but it was a beginning for Floyd and got him somewhat prepared for what he could face in the regular season.

There were some comments made by defensive coordinator Vic Fangio about Floyd just prior to the start of the season.  Fangio said something to the effect of “Overall his camp was kind of choppy”.  In all honesty, Fangio was right.  Floyd had an inconsistent camp that left a lot of people scratching their heads as to why the Bears chose him in the first round.

We should look further into what Fangio had to say.  He also added that Floyd had been “choppy and inconsistent more from an availability standpoint…”.  Fangio continued by saying “he could have had a large chunk of good, learning practices in a week playing in a preseason game”.

So perhaps you could say that Floyd wasn’t always available in practice but when he was, he was practicing pretty well.

Would he live up to his first-round billing or be a failure?  The answer could be coming soon.