Chicago Bears: 5 slump candidates

Who are five candidates on the Chicago Bears to potentially have a down season?

Yesterday, we looked at five Chicago Bears players who could potentially breakout into a big season. You can not be too optimistic without understanding that there is a downside to everything. With that in mind, there have to be five players who could potentially have the arrow pointing down next season. We identified the five potential slump candidates in 2018.

5. Kyle Long

There really should be no surprise why he is on this list. In fact, some could argue that it is hard to classify Long as a slump candidate when he is coming off of arguably his worst NFL season.

Still, the question that could be taken away from this season surrounding Long is “is this the end”? It is not as crazy of a thought as you think.

The fact of the matter is that Kyle Long has been banged up. Over each of the past two seasons, a variety of ugly injuries have sidelined Long for an extended time. Long has tried to fight through these injuries and get back in a timely manner. However, that has seemingly only made these injuries worse and extended them to other areas.

Kyle Long is going be 30 when he enters the season. That is typically the age when a player will peak or begin to fade downhill. With Long and his injury history, and his nature of playing through nicks and bumps, are we really expecting a snap back to reality? It seems as though the more likely scenario is that this is the beginning of the end.

There has been some buzz this offseason that Eric Kush looks impressive, and maybe pushing James Daniels for starters snaps. These things always have a way of working themselves out. Would it be that shocking if it was Kush stepping for Long rather than Daniels? Would it be shocking if Kush and Daniels formed as the future by the end of the season?