The 2019 NFL season is about to come to an end with the playing of the Super Bowl but the Chicago Bears’ season ended much earlier.
The Chicago Bears could just never put much together and win games falling short of making the playoffs after getting to the playoffs in 2018. It’s all about personnel and who is and isn’t there. Who wasn’t there for the Bears when the dust settled and the season was over?
Injuries are a common thing in football and the Chicago Bears had their share of injuries this season. The ended up with a total of nine players on injured reserve when the season ended. None of the injuries suffered by those nine players appear to be career-ending although one player has already called it quits. We will talk about him in a little bit. Nine players on injured reserve aren’t terrible but still, it was damaging to the Bears.
Just how important is it that players remain healthy? Just look at what happened when Akiem Hicks was out for an extended period of time this year. The defense suffered. Everyone played a little less than they would have had they been in there. Just look at Khalil Mack’s performance. Without Hicks in the lineup, teams were able to put more blockers on Mack thus taking him out of the game. The Bears could have used Mack at his best but it just didn’t work out.
Who were those players that were on injured reserve at the end of the season? What did their loss mean to the team and what does their future hold? We have broken it down by offense and defense (each on one slide) and given some context into each player.