Chicago Bears: Leonard Floyd primed for a Pro-Bowl season?

Entering his third year with the Chicago Bears, will Leonard Floyd finally make the jump everyone is hoping to see?

Last season, a couple of Chicago Bears, namely Akiem Hicks, made strong arguments to make the Pro Bowl. In the end, none of them were voted in likely due to the team’s subpar performance, though Hicks, Jordan Howard, Kyle Long and Tarik Cohen were named alternates.

This year, the Bears will hope that changes, as it will probably mean that their team is performing well in 2018.

In particular, Hicks already knows who he thinks could represent the Chicago Bears among the NFL’s elite: defensive teammate Leonard Floyd.

Here’s what Hicks had to say after today’s veteran minicamp session:

On one hand, there’s a tongue-in-cheek shoutout to several guys, including himself, that might deserve that honor. After all, Hicks unquestionably deserved to at least make a Pro Bowl last year for his efforts.

But his spotlight on Floyd is telling for a few reasons, not least because Floyd could be the key to the entire defense.

For one thing, Floyd is, beyond all doubt, the player with the greatest talent and upside in this unit.

If the Bears allowed him to simply focus on rushing the passer, he’d be a ten-sack threat every year. His growing versatility as a run stopper and cover man make him a potentially rare defensive cornerstone.

Give him a man opposite him to take some pressure off—something he’s only had during brief spells of his first two seasons—and he can make some magic happen.

Assuming that Hicks can help occupy space up front, Aaron Lynch/whatever rookie(s) the Bears draft make plays and he stays healthy, Floyd could indeed make that leap.

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We’ve seen snatches of what he can do as he posted seven sacks as a rookie and 4.5 last season despite battling injuries and inconsistent play on the other side of the line. And we know that he has all the physical tools to dominate in the NFL.

He just has to put it together consistently.

I’m not going to book Floyd for the 2018 Pro Bowl just yet. Personally, I need to see him stay on the field for a full season/see what his counterparts do before I’d go on that limb.

But I’ll be an optimist here and say he starts 13 games and posts 9-10 sacks if he’s able to stay healthy. With everything else he does, I think he’ll make a solid if not completely ironclad Pro Bowl case on that alone.

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And I’ll say this: if Floyd gets ten or more sacks this season, the Chicago Bears will be pushing top-five territory as a defense. And, if he and the defense perform that well, this team will make the playoffs in 2018.

Floyd has what it takes to be the best defensive player in the NFC North. Hicks thinks it’s his time to show us all just that, and I’m here for it.