Chicago Bears: Joel Iyiegbuniwe future starter at ILB?
Outlook
As a rookie, Iyiengbuniwe will almost certainly see a huge role on special teams. He has the perfect size, build and athleticism to make a difference on coverage units and as a blocker.
Plus, as he’s shown on the field a few times, he has a knack for separating the football from ball carriers.
Even if he doesn’t play that much on the base defense, that alone can provide a significant impact for the Chicago Bears next season.
That said, given how injury-plagued the Bears’ linebacking corps has been the past two seasons, one might almost have to expect that Iyiegbuniwe will take the field for the defense at some point.
Maybe, he’ll just take the field occasionally in sub packages as a coverage linebacker, though Smith and Danny Trevathan also cover well.
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Or maybe the injury bug will bite again and force Iyiegbuniwe into service as with Christian Jones last year.
If that happens, he could well get a chance to audition for Trevathan’s job in 2019 and beyond.
Trevathan actually entered the very “cut-able” portion of his contract with the Chicago Bears beginning this season. If the Bears wanted to cut him before 2018 — they don’t — they could save almost $5 million. Next year, they could save more than $6 million if they release him.
As such, this year could very well be the time for the Bears to see if Kwiatkoski or Iyiegbuniwe can step into that starting role next to Smith. And though Kwiatkoski has the experience and has played solidly thus far, the rookie may have the greater upside.
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Imagine having Smith and Iyiegbuniwe hunting running backs all over the field for at least the next five seasons. In those two young players, the Chicago Bears could have the cornerstones of their next dominant defense.
Then again, Iyiegbuniwe still has to show the Bears what he’s made of first before we start assuming all that. For the hometown kid, the heavy lifting starts now.