Leonard Floyd: Trying to Quiet the Critics

The Season Starts

The Bears went into the 2016 season with Floyd as a backup at one of the outside linebacker positions.  But they couldn’t keep their first round investment on the bench for long.  They had to work him into games and they would do that almost right away.

In his first game of the season against the Houston Texans, Floyd not only played in that game but started.  He had a pretty active game getting six total tackles and a half a sack. Not a bad a debut for the rookie.  He did prove himself somewhat well adept in run defense which he had previously been criticized for.  Were the pundits wrong about him?

Floyd started the next two games against Philadelphia and Dallas.  He didn’t have a great game against the Eagles but did a little better against the Cowboys.  In Week four, against the Lions, Floyd started again but left the game with a leg injury.  He was out of the Bear’s next two games (versus the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars).

His absence in those two games rose questions yet again about his durability.  His worthiness as a first-round pick was questioned again and the doubters rose up.  What could Floyd do to get the critics off his back? More importantly, what could he do to win over the coaching staff to show that he was worthy of his lofty status as a first round pick?

Sometimes, players have games where they “arrive” or “breakout”.  It’s still way too early to tell and I am by no means saying that Floyd proved everyone wrong on the back of this one game, but he did show he had some value in the game we are about to discuss.