Chicago Bears Mailbag: Free agency, running backs, and the NFL draft

6. Thoughts on Mitchell Trubisky, Adam Shaheen, Leonard Floyd, Adrian Amos, and James Daniels.

Thanks so much for the bevy of questions man. The more the merrier I guess. But anyways, I’ll answer each of these in a paragraph below.

To take the next step, Mitchell Trubisky will need to better read defenses. This was a weakness of his coming out of North Carolina, the inability to recognize what a defense is throwing at him pre-snap. The reality with Trubisky is that he showed tons of growth in 2018 and now in 2019, he’ll need to build off what he did in 2018.

Adam Shaheen is still growing. I see him being used in a similar role to how the Chiefs use Travis Kelce, having him lineup in the slot. He’s definitely shown flashes of being a more physical player than Trey Burton. Since Shaheen spent half of the 2018 season injured, his growth has been stalled. However, if he comes back with a sound knowledge of the offense, he could have a big year in 2019.

No, Leonard Floyd is not trending towards bust status, but he hasn’t exactly lived up to his top-ten draft status. The reality is that Floyd has been marred by injuries since his rookie year in 2016. In 2018, he played in every game but still wasn’t up to full speed due to a broken hand that he sustained in the preseason. In the final five games of the 2018 season, Floyd finished with 18 tackles and three sacks. However, 2019 will be a career-defining year for Floyd. Is he just “another” top-ten pick or can he join the ranks of elite pass rushers in the NFL?

If the Bears are not able to bring Adrian Amos back, the defense won’t get hurt much. Amos was in many ways just a box safety who racked up tackles. Although his coverage skills improved in 2018, Amos could improve tons in that area. Overall, if the Bears cannot retain Amos, they’ll find his replacement in the NFL Draft.

James Daniels is a 21-year-old guard who took over halfway through 2018 and excelled. Plain and simple, Daniels is awesome. He shut down Aaron Donald in week 14 when the Bears hosted the Rams and only got better as the season went on. Daniels is one guy who’s going to be an anchor on the Bears offensive line for a long time.

Looking back at it now, it’s crazy to think that there were five interior offensive linemen that were selected before him. He should’ve been the second interior offensive lineman off the board last year after Quenton Nelson.