Chicago Bears: 5 Players who must shine vs. Lions in Week 10

Leonard Floyd

It’s a good thing for Leonard Floyd that Trubisky isn’t living up to the expectations placed upon him. With everyone directing their ire towards the quarterback Floyd’s struggles go unnoticed.

So far this season, Floyd has 24 tackles with just three for loss. He’s only registered four quarterback hits and has three sacks. Of those sacks, two of them came in the season-opening game against the Green Bay Packers. The other one came last week against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Chicago Bears and their fans continue to wait for Floyd to put everything together. He has the athleticism and quickness to play a lot better than he has. He showed some promise his rookie season when he registered seven sacks in 12 games. He hasn’t reached that level since.

It seems that Floyd only has productive games against the Packers. In his career, he has 22 tackles, 7.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 10 quarterback hits. All those are the most against any team.

Floyd is playing for a new contract. The Bears picked up his fifth-year option for $13.22 million, but it’s only guaranteed in case of an injury. The Bears could part ways with Floyd and use that money on someone else.

Floyd needs to make a stand this week. Khalil Mack sees a lot of double teams because teams feel that one guy is plenty to take on Floyd. That makes Mack’s job more difficult. Floyd needs to find a way to get into the Lions’ backfield. If he could attract some attention then Mack would be free to be Superman. The Lions rank third in passing yards and second in passing touchdowns so Floyd needs to step up so both he and Mack could help the Bears’ secondary.

Floyd has half the season to prove that the Bears should keep him. He needs to up his game, starting this week.