3 notable changes Chicago Bears defense made in week 5
2. Armon Watts playing more than Angelo Blackson
This was essentially the same debate as Gipson and Muhammad, and we wrote about how this change needed to be done sooner rather than later as well. Watts has had a better pass-rush win rate, and run stop rate, and he converted his pass-rushing into more production as well. We even added that Blackson may be best off as a rotational player, and asking him to step into a starter workload for the first time in his career is a bit much.
Still, through four weeks Blackson was much further ahead. He played 26 more snaps in week one, and 14 more than 20 more in the following weeks. However, in week four he only played 10 more snaps than Watts, which led to the flip on Sunday.
Armon Watts played 37 snaps and Angelo Blackson played just 30. This could honestly be better for both of them. Watts has been the better player, and we could get a better version of Blackson back in his rotational role.
It was a small change, and Blackson still started on Sunday, but it was a flip that you should expect to continue because Watts has continued to perform better than Blackson. Blackson spent training camp with the team and Watts was signed late. Still, the coaches now have a big enough sample that they cannot sit Armon Watts at the expense of Angelo Blackson any longer.