There are plenty of Chicago Bears players on the current roster who’ve undergone some recent criticism for one reason or another. Fans view them as a weak point on the roster because of it. This is natural. It’s part of sports and what makes them so engaging. At the same time, people can tend to get a little carried away with the idea that these men are no good and even worthless.
So this article is a quick reminder that there’s almost never such a black and white reality in the NFL. If one looks a little closer they might find something a little surprising that ease or even negates the original issue about the player. Here are a few such example for people to digest.
Jordan Howard: 71.9 catch percentage
All anybody can talk about with Jordan Howard of late is how he’s a poor fit for this new offense under Matt Nagy. Why? It boils down to one reason: he doesn’t catch the ball well. Nagy loves to use the running back as a receiving weapon. Howard has 12 drops in two years. That’s hardly ideal but it tends to not tell the entire story.
He actually caught 71.9% of his passes in 2017. That surpassed Jay Ajayi, C.J. Anderson, Jordan Matthews, and even the much-heralded Ezekiel Elliott. All of whom are supposedly more reliable threats in the passing game than Howard is. Maybe this will remind people that things are never as bad as they seem.
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Josh Bellamy: 4 plays of 25 yards or more
The hammering of Bellamy by critics is easy enough to understand. The guy has a terrible habit of dropping catchable passes, most often in the absolute worst situations. His end zone gaffes against Tennessee and to a lesser extent Atlanta likely cost the Bears wins. At the same time, for all the heat he gets he was their best big play threat last year. He produced four plays of 25 yards or more in 2017, double the number of anyone else on the roster. He also got 119 of 356 yards after the catch.
Bobby Massie: 7 penalties in two years
He gets a ton of grief for not being the best pass protector in the world. That’s fair. Bobby Massie isn’t perfect. However, there is one good thing people can say about him. He’s a lot better about not hurting the offense with dumb mistakes than his more heralded counterpart Charles Leno. Since 2016, Massie has just seven total offensive penalties in 30 games. By comparison, Leno had 16. Sure he may not be elite but at least he’s disciplined.
DeAndre Houston-Carson: 10 special teams tackles
Some people are down on Houston-Carson because he hasn’t made any progress at the position he was drafted to play in safety. While that’s a fair complaint, the fact is he wasn’t given much of an opportunity. Meanwhile, people have completely overlooked how good the former sixth round pick has become on special teams. He finished in the top 30 of the NFL last season with 10 solo tackles. So sure they didn’t get the next Gary Fencik but finding a special teams ace late in the draft is pretty good too.
Pat O’Donnell: 0 punts blocked in two years
Listen. He’s not going to ever be the best punter in the world. That much is clear after four seasons. Still, one can at least say Pat O’Donnell improved steadily over that span. His 47 yards per punt last year was top 10 in the league. Perhaps his most overlooked stat though was zero blocked punts between 2016 and 2017.
That might not seem like a big deal until people get reminded he had two blocked punts during his first two seasons. It might seem minimal, but few things can sway a game more than having a routine punt turned into a prime scoring opportunity for the opponent.
