Chicago Bears beat the Arizona Cardinals: Defensive grades
Linebackers: B+
All in all, tonight was an uneventful night for the linebackers for the most part. And that’s not at all meant to be a bad thing.
Leonard Floyd stood out once again early on, setting the edge in the run game and dominating as a pass-rusher. Though he didn’t record a sack, he was unstoppable nonetheless. Jake Veldheer couldn’t deal with him at all. Through two preseason games, I think we can start buying into the hype with Floyd. He really does look that good.
Add Jared Veldheer to the list of OTs who absolutely cannot handle Leonard Floyd. I suspect that will be a long list this year.
— Johnathan Wood (@Johnathan_Wood1) August 20, 2017
Jerrell Freeman was his usual active self, staying around the ball and cleaning up a few run plays. But otherwise, we didn’t hear much from the inside linebackers with the top units.
We did, however, see some nice plays from the reserve linebackers with the game in the balance once again.
John Timu continues to show improvement from last year, especially as a pass defender. He still needs to work on his angles as a tackler, but he generally looks like a more useful player than he was last season. And Sam Acho flashed on a couple of pass rushes. Most notably, he came off the edge on the Cardinals’ two-point conversion attempt to win the game, forcing Blaine Gabbert into an errant throw.
With the down linemen killing the way they were, the linebackers didn’t have to compensate for their struggles like they did last year. When Hicks returns, their situation might improve even more.