This rookie struggled for Chicago Bears in Week 16

The Chicago Bears have started to use Trevis Gipson more, but have not seen results

Over the past four weeks, the Chicago Bears have started to move Trevis Gipson into the fourth edge rusher role ahead of James Vaughters. Gipson has played 10, 20, 10, and 15 snaps over the past month. This makes sense considering the Bears traded future draft capital for Gipson, and Vaughters is a journeyman depth player.

We have written about the questionable decision to essentially spend two days three picks on a depth edge rusher when the offensive line was a pressing need. Still, now that the pick has been made, they need to at least see what they have in him.

He had shown flashes, and created two pressures against Houston, per PFF. Still, they came on pass protection breakdowns, not wins for Gipson. PFF also noted that Sunday was the worst game of the short career for Gipson.

Below, he takes on Jawaan Taylor, a second-year right tackle in the run game. Taylor beats him off of the football and tosses him into the backfield. This helped create a huge run lane, and a chance for Dare Ogunbowle to have one of his better runs.

Gipson also missed a tackle in the game where he was chasing the runner, which resulted in the longest run of the game. It is not good when Gipson sees six-run defense snaps, and two of the explosive runs occur.

Beyond that, Gipson had an unsportsmanlike penalty on special teams and an offsides penalty on defense.

It is far too early to write Gipson off, but the process from this pick was questionable from the start. Having a fifth-rounder fail to contribute as a rookie is fine, but trading up for had intentions that they had a plan for him.

For 12 weeks he had failed to beat James Vaughters, and four weeks in, you are realizing why. With one week to play, it is fair to say that Trevis Gipson has had a lackluster rookie season.