5 reasons the Chicago Bears will make the playoffs in 2018
Doctor, doctor, give me the news
It’s quite possible that the unsung heroes of this new coaching staff could be two people you wouldn’t immediately think of. This offseason the Bears took steps to address the slew of injuries that have plagued them for a few years. To that end, they hired Jason Loscalzo as their strength coach and Andre Tucker as their head athletic trainer.
Not only that, but Ryan Pace and Nagy committed to performing a thorough overview of the process and identify ways they can reduce injuries. Based on their past two seasons, they have their work cut out for them. Footballoutsiders.com calculates “adjusted games lost,” or AGL. According to their site, this is not just a total number of games missed. They quantify the effect injuries have on the team’s performance.
In 2016 the Bears AGL was 158.8 or worst in the league. Although it was slightly better in 2017, their AGL of 118.1 was still good for second worst in the league. Translation — injuries have had a huge, negative impact on the Bears recently. And we’re not talking about backups or fringe players. They lost significant players due to injury last season: Leonard Floyd, Cameron Meredith, Kevin White, Kyle Long, Zach Miller, Willie Young, and the list goes on.
Essentially the Bears were playing at a significantly reduced capacity. To complicate matters, they lacked depth at those positions. Yet, if the Bears can keep these players on the field, the impact could be huge. Had they been close to full strength last year, the results would have been much different. Here’s to hoping this is one category the Bears aren’t leading after 2018.
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Bottom Line
Again, I want to reiterate the need for fans to keep expectations reasonable. Nevertheless, every year in the NFL it seems a team goes from worst-to-first. Parity in the league is very strong and sometimes the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” can be razor thin. Therefore, if things break the right way, it’s possible the Bears are playing meaningful games in December.