Before the season starts, ESPN has created fantasy projections for every player on the Chicago Bears, including defense. This gives us a great look into some baseline stats and possible expectations for players on the team this year.
When looking on the defense there will be plenty of questions about the interior defensive line. One name to keep an eye on is Angelo Blackson. Can he outperform expectations this season?
3. Over or Under 587 snaps for Angelo Blackson with Chicago Bears in 2022?
More than anything it will be interesting to see how the distribution of snaps plays out for an interior defensive line that is not rich in depth. 587 snaps do not seem like a lot of an interior defensive lineman, but Blackson has often been a role player, and that would be a career-high for him.
To be fair, he hit 584 snaps last season, and that was a career-high. He signed with the Chicago Bears because he thought he could get more snaps, and through two seasons it will be by far his biggest impact.
Through three NFL seasons, he did not get to 300 snaps in a season. In his fourth and fifth seasons, he caught on a bit more and played 449 and 489 snaps.
Then, he signed with Arizona where he played 550 snaps before Chicago played him 584 snaps last year. Compared to his first five seasons, the career-high 587 snaps would be a lot, but this is about in line with what he has been playing in recent years.
Blackson could easily go over this as well. Last year he played that many snaps with Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, and Bilal Nichols all on the roster. Those names are gone, and the addition of Justin Jones is not enough to fill that.
This means that Blackson will be expected to get over 600 snaps for the first time in his NFL career.