Chicago Bears are not equipped without Danny Trevathan
The Chicago Bears are really going to miss Danny Trevathan for even just for one game.
It is a shame the headlines surrounding Danny Trevathan’s Week Four performance were the flagrant hit, followed by the suspension for two games reduced to one. What is going to get lost in a poor game played by almost every other Chicago Bear, is that Trevathan clearly proved that he was back to playing at a very high level after his torn patellar tendon a season ago.
Trevathan played in Week One but was not the same player yet. The Bears got by with Jerrell Freeman playing that game, but Trevathan was in on one tackle and looked slow off of the ball. Week two, without his partner the middle he was exposed a bit, and the team got beat up by the Buccaneers while Trevathan had four tackles.
In Week Three, you started to see a bounce in his step. He made quick cuts to fill gaps and hold Le’Veon Bell to short gains. It was an impressive 10 tackle performance. Week Four, he was back. He was guarding tight ends and even slot receivers. He was filling gaps against the run and making last second tackles. By the end of the game he finished with 13 tackles.
Now, the team does not just go from this high level of play, but they go to who was technically the fifth inside linebacker on the depth chart just a month ago. There is no Freeman or Nick Kwiatkowski. They are onto Jonathon Timu again. Christian Jones, has been okay, but he cannot carry a load like Freeman or Trevathan could. We have seen this story before and it has not been pretty. The play of the defensive line will help, but the ability to fill in when the defensive line gets pushed needs to be shown. Neither linebacker has consistently shown this in their careers.
This is going to be a bigger question mark than some may realize and you know that the Vikings are ready to test those two out.