5 Chicago Bears looking forward to the bye week

4. Chicago Bears need to see Trevis Gipson perform better after the bye

When the Chicago Bears traded Robert Quinn there were a lot of thoughts that Trevis Gipson could be the man who takes advantage of the added opportunity. However, what happened was that the attention shifted from Quinn to Gipson, and all of a sudden you saw that Gipson was no longer having an impact. 

His production and ability to win against offensive tackles flew right off of a cliff. In some ways, this is going to help the front office learn who he is. It is probably best for him to be a rotational, depth rusher who plays mostly on passing downs.

Still, like Braxton Jones, we could see him benefit and come back better after a week off. His snap rate is up 6% from last season, and he is just 82 snaps behind a full season of work that was the most he had in his career.

Still, in the past five games, he has played over 60% of the snaps. Against the Lions, he played a career-high 89%. He started the season with normal work, but over the last month, he has been pushed beyond his limit.

When you add in that he is being asked to play more, with the fact that he has gone this deep into the season without a bye week, which does not happen, you have to think that he is starting to hit the end of the tank.

Gipson may be being phased out because of his role, but perhaps after a week of rest, he can at least help carry the pass rush as he did earlier in the season.