Chicago Bears: 3 Things to watch for in Hall of Fame Game 2018
2. Role players stepping up on defense
The defense of the Bears is going to be interesting on a number of levels on Thursday night. That, of course, all begins with the fact that the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 draft, linebacker Roquan Smith, has still not joined the team as he’s not yet signed his rookie contract. That is obviously not what the Bears want to see as they’d like to get him on the field, but it’s not the only thing that they are currently dealing with heading into this game.
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At the same time as the front office continues to negotiated with Smith, they are also dealing with an injury to Danny Trevathan while also trying to keep other starters healthy. When you have seen guys like Leonard Floyd be lost to injury so often, it’s not hard to reason why they might want to limit the workloads for their key contributors.
As such, we are likely to see some role players play a significant amount of snaps on Thursday night against the Ravens. Guys who will likely play in a rotation or may just be backups in the regular season will appear to be starters for this team.
While the Bears have built a solid defense in recent years as they’ve been rebuilding overall, depth has been somewhat of an issue of this team. With how they’ve constructed this roster, it should ultimately be less of a problem in 2018. However, seeing how players such as linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski and edge rusher Kylie Fitts perform in the Hall of Fame Game will give us a better indication of how things stand in the Windy City.