A recent Chicago Bears' draft pick needs to avoid the bust label
Zacch Pickens did not have a great rookie season for the Chicago Bears. The former third-round pick did not record a full sack, ending with 0.5. He did not get on the field often but did play 264 total snaps last year. Overall, the track record of players to record over 200 snaps without a sack is not great, but there are some exceptions.
The case for Zacch Pickens ascending with the Chicago Bears
Two of the most similar seasons to Pickens are Justin Jones and Akiem Hicks, two players that Bears fans are familiar with.
Name | Tackles | Sacks | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|
Zacch Pickens | 20 | 0.5 | 1 |
Akiem Hicks | 20 | 0 | 2 |
Justin Jones | 17 | 0.5 | 1 |
Overall, they have similar stats for their rookie seasons. You can see that Hicks and Jones did play a little more, and while they did not show up in the box score stats, some advanced stats from PFF point to their favor.
Name | Snaps | Pressures | Stops |
|---|---|---|---|
Zacch Pickens | 264 | 8 | 9 |
Justin Jones | 300 | 15 | 9 |
Akiem Hicks | 372 | 10 | 13 |
Jones had nearly twice as many pressures, and Hicks had a few more run stops and pressures, even though neither saw it show on the basic stats.
Still, the reality is that while Hicks and Jones took time to find themselves in the NFL, they did take a step in their second season.
Jones went from 17 combined tackles to 30. He went from 15 pressures to 17 and went from nine run-stops to 20. Hicks went from 10 pressures as a rookie to 12, and his sacks went from 0 to 4.5. He went from 13 run stops to 44. Needless to say, if Zacch Pickens does anything like that, fans will change their tune very quickly.
This is not to say that Pickens will explode like Hicks or even slowly ascend like Jones. However, the point is that plenty of rookies show little and then find themselves in their second year. It is easy to watch a rookie struggle to give up, but an open mind could lead to fewer surprises during the season.
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