The Chicago Bears are going to be leaning on Angelo Blackson more this year than they did last season. They lost a lot of depth in the interior of their line, and Blackson should join Justin Jones as the two leading the group in starter snaps next season.
Last season he played a career-high 584 snaps, which wound up being a career-high. This was aided by injuries to Akiem Hicks and issues with Eddie Goldman, but considering he now may be in line to break that career-high again it seems like Blackson is not regretting signing in Chicago.
After getting 550 snaps in Arizona, how did Blackson perform last season with the Chicago Bears?
Chicago Bears DL Angelo Blackson Advanced Stats
Overall, he showed off versatility. He spent 54% of his snaps lined up on the interior and 46% on the edge. Blackson is going to play much more on the interior, obviously and with the Cardinals a year prior he spent 78% of his snaps on the interior.
When looking at his defensive snaps he ranked 45th out of 114 qualified rushers in pass rush efficiency. The year prior he was at 63rd out of 121 rushers.
When it came to his win rate or the percentage of time he beat his man within two seconds Blackson ranked 46th, right near his productivity rating. When he beat his man, he was getting in the stat sheet. A season prior he ranked 81st in this area.
It is interesting to note that Larry Ogunjobi also ranked 56th in this area, so it was not a clear upgrade from a win percentage standpoint.
Blackson excelled even more against the run, ranking 26th out of 127 qualified run stoppers. That is on the heels of being 116th in 2020 with the Cardinals. Also, Larry Ogunjobi ranted 35th in this area.
Still, it is almost unfair to compare him to Larry Ogunjobi. Ogunjobi has played 700 snaps in four out of his five NFL seasons and in one season he hit 900 snaps. Blackson has hit 500 snaps twice, in the past two years. He hit 400 snaps twice, and in three seasons he failed to get that many snaps.
It is likely that if Blackson is asked to grind out every snap that his efficiency numbers would decline. In the right role, for the right amount of snaps you can plenty of quality play out of Blackson.
To be fair to Blackson this will be the first chance that we get to see him attempt to hit the 700 snap mark, so perhaps he can hold the same efficiency playing closer to 12 more snaps per game. Still, that is a notable increase, and it will be interesting to come back to this and see how he did, and if he was able to get that much work.