12 and 13 personnel has been all the rage around the NFL, and that's why the Chicago Bears went out and drafted Sam Roush in the third round this year.
Ben Johnson dances to the beat of his own drum, but at the same time, if something's working, he's going to take notice and adopt. Having Roush join a room of Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet should have given the Bears an upper hand when it comes to implementing these formations -- keyword should.
That was a great plan until we saw the first two games of Roush on the field in the regular season.
Through his first two NFL regular season games, Roush has underwhelmed, and not in a manner where we're wondering where the production is or something along those lines. No, that's not it.
We never expected Roush to come in and be a massive part of the offense or take on several targets (although the targets are quite confusing thus far).
But, the rookie has been downright putrid.
Sam Roush is costing the Bears' offense in key situations through two weeks
Typically, you might not notice a team's third tight end when they're on the field. Usually, that means they're busy blocking.
But Roush has been a different case. He's been on the field a lot more than many anticipated early on. He's been out on offense and on special teams.
Offensively speaking, Roush has shown that he cannot hold a block to save his life.
Wait, hold that thought.
To hold a block you actually have to engage, and Roush has failed to even engage on a block multiple times. We've seen the man in front of him run right by, almost untouched, on more than one occasion.
He has been on the field for 15 passing snaps per PFF; targeted 11 times and caught only one of them.
He had two drops against the Vikings on Sunday, including one that was almost certain to go for a touchdown. On first-and-10 from the Vikings' 17-yard line, Caleb Williams hit Roush right in the hands, and he dropped it. Had he caught it, Roush could have turned and essentially fallen into the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.
Not that this has any direct correlation with Williams' injury, but four plays later after Roush's drop, Williams went down and suffered his hamstring injury.
That's neither here nor there, but the moral of the story is: Roush has been awful when out there on offense.
Sam Roush has been bad on both offense and special teams to start his career
Now for Roush on special teams.
It's pretty simple. We've seen him out there for Cairo Santos field goal attempts. In both Week 1 and Week 2, he completely missed on a block -- I am talking a total whiff.
Against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, Roush's whiff led to the Santos kick nearly being blocked. Fortunately, it wasn't.
Now on Sunday against Minnesota, Roush did the exact same thing.
This time, the man he was supposed to block ended up blocking Santos' field goal.
That field goal would have made the score 6-6. As we know, the Vikings would go on to kick a field goal on their next drive, and the score could have been 9-6 if Roush had stuck his block.
On that final Bears drive, Tyson Bagent did a fine job leading the offense down to the red zone, where Santos might have been able to try for a game-tying field goal rather than the offense being forced to go for a touchdown.
Who knows what would have happened in overtime.
The point is: Roush's mistakes have cost the Bears in immense ways, thus far.
He should be forced to sit on the bench and wait a while until he returns to the field.
Ben Johnson cannot keep putting him out there. It is a gamble to do so, as the rookie has made abundantly clear.
Read more: Lamar Jackson has the perfect blueprint for Caleb Williams' hamstring recovery
Time for a redshirt rest of the season for Roush.
Period. End of story.
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