Chicago Bears: Moving forward, nothing is guaranteed
Health is always a concern
For years it seemed like the Bears were snakebitten with horrendous injury luck. This season finally saw some of that misfortune go away for once.
If you dig around long enough, you’ll find that the Bears were amongst the most injured teams the last few seasons. They ranked at the top of lists for most players on the IR for a few years. Some of that was based on shutting some guys down because the season was lost. But no question they dealt with some staggering injury numbers.
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Finally, for the first time in what seemed like forever, the Bears actually were very lucky with health. The only major injuries that were suffered were Kyle Long’s foot that caused him to miss much of the season and Bryce Callahan’s broken foot. The latter wound up being far more costly than originally thought.
Allen Robinson, Mitchell Trubisky, and Khalil Mack also suffered injuries, yet they only missed a few games each.
Ultimately, injuries are a part of the game and for now, it seems like the ‘Injury God’ is on the Bear’s side for once. But that can change in an instant. Next season could play out just like they did during the John Fox era.
In the Thursday Night Football season opener, the Atlanta Falcons faced the Eagles in a rematch of last season’s divisional round matchup. That game saw the Eagles repeat their success with an 18-12 victory. However, the Falcons lost Keanu Neal to a blown ACL for the season and Deion Jones for nine games to a broken foot.
Both injuries proved to have massive implications as Atlanta’s defense turned into a sieve without two of their best defenders. As a result, their final defensive DVOA ranking had them 31st and they finished the season 7-9.
The point here is that the Bears aren’t a guarantee to be 100 percent healthy next season and should Trubisky or Mack suffer something serious, division supremacy and Super Bowl hopes are in imminent danger.