Four Chicago Bears earned All-Pro honors.
In 2012 the Chicago Bears had 2 first team All-Pro members when Brandon Marshall and Peanut Tillman earned the honors. Since then, not surprisingly, the Bears haven’t had any All-Pro representation. The Bears didn’t have one winning season between 2013 and 2017 so it shouldn’t come as a shock that no one received that type of individual honor.
This year, however, the Bears finished the regular season at 12-4 and have the most dominant defense in the league and, this time, but again not surprisingly, the Bears were well represented on the All-Pro team.
The Bears had three defensive players earn first team All-Pro honors. Khalil Mack earned the nod at edge rusher. Kyle Fuller earned one of the two cornerback spots. Eddie Jackson received the spot at one of the two safety spots.
Not only did the Bears have three defensive players, but Tarik Cohen also earned the nod at punt returner.
The last time the Chicago Bears had 4 All-Pros in one season was 2006 when Brian Urlacher, Olin Kreutz, Devin Hester and Robbie Gould earned honors. 2006 was, of course, the last time the Bears reached the Super Bowl.
The last time the Bears had three defensive players get first team All Pro honors was 1985 when Mike Singeltary, Richard Dent and Steve McMichael all earned the honors. The Bears, of course, won the Super Bowl that season.
Those are two pretty good teams to be compared to if you are the 2018 Chicago Bears.
One unfortunate note was that Akiem Hicks did not earn first team or second team All-Pro honors. Hicks had a dominant season for the Bears across the defensive line. Unfortunately, Hicks lost out to Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox who earned first-team honors and Chris Jones and JJ Watt who made second team honors.
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Sacks are what usually opens eyes and Donald deservedly got the first team nod with a dominant season and 20.5 sacks. JJ Watt was second in the NFL with 16 sacks and Chris Jones had 15.5. Cox is a dominant player across the defensive front and is again, difficult to argue against his selection.
The issue for Hicks is the positioning of Watt. While Watt did line up at the internal defensive lineman position at times, he almost exclusively lined up outside the tackle this season. Watt should be considered an edge rusher this year, which would have opened up the door for Hicks to be second team All Pro.
It’s hard to argue Hicks over the four interior defensive lineman they chose, but it is quite easy to make the argument that Watt was placed at the wrong position.
Regardless of the Hicks ‘snub,’ it’s quite an honor for the Bears to have four players earn All-Pro spots. The only question now, is if the 2018 squad will have as much postseason success as the 1985 or 2006 teams did.