The story surrounding Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd seemed so promising at the start of 2018. Mack was a superstar who could anchor the Chicago Bears pass rush for years to come. Floyd, if he could stay healthy, might finally flourish in his presence. Thus far the results have not lived up to expectations.
Mack started off on a crazy pace with five sacks in the first four games. However, an ankle injury in Miami seems to have slowed him. Floyd? He broke his hand in the preseason has looked like a ghost of himself when rushing the quarterback this year with just four pressures in six games with zero sacks.
However, it’s easy to put all of the blame on them for the recent struggles. The fact of the matter is they haven’t been put in the most advantageous positions to swell those pass rush numbers. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has handled their snaps lately with increasingly odd decisions.
Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd weren’t used for what they get paid to do
Everybody knows what Mack and Floyd were brought in to do. That’s rush the quarterback. Pure and simple. When they can do that, the defense excels. The weird part about all of this is Fangio hasn’t let them do that enough in 2018. He’s called an abnormally high number of plays that have one or both dropping into coverage. Against the Patriots on Sunday, it reached crazy levels. Mack dropped 18 times while only rushing Tom Brady 16 times. Floyd was 13 and 13 respectively.
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Are #Bears coaches handling Khalil Mack and his injury properly?@LanceBriggs shares some insight on when a coach needs to check on an injured (or under-performing) player. #FootballAftershow pic.twitter.com/HSbLEBbl4k
— Bears Talk (@NBCSBears) October 22, 2018
It was a sharp left turn in Mack’s case. The previous three games he’d dropped into coverage an average of six times. For whatever reason, that tripled against New England. Floyd has been even more perplexing. On the year he’s rushed the quarterback 134 times while dropping into coverage 45 times. This is so unusual because it’s bucking the trend from his first two years.
As a rookie, Floyd had a ratio of 269 to 63 (4.26 to 1) in favor of rushes to coverage ratio. Last year that held steady at 276 to 69 (4 to 1). This year that average has dropped like a rock to 2.97 to 1. So what’s the deal? Has Fangio fallen too much in love with Floyd’s athletic ability? Or does he not trust him as a pass rusher?
That second one might make sense if Mack didn’t do the same things. It’s possible though that Fangio might be relying too much on using the outside linebackers in coverage.
Aldon Smith never saw this frequency of coverage use
To gain an idea of whether this trend is consistent, I went back to look at the numbers from Fangio’s time in San Francisco. Specifically in regards to how he used star pass rusher Aldon Smith. In 2011 and 2012, Smith had 45.5 sacks. Between those two seasons, he rushed the quarterback 1,088 times and dropped in coverage 160 times. That’s a 6.8-to-1 ratio. It’s clear Vic let Smith do what he did best.
Now it is important to not let one game dictate the criticism on him. It could end up being an aberration. A single instance of heavy use meant to throw off a Hall of Fame quarterback. If so then one should expect Mack to get back to hunting next week against the Jets. However, if this continues it’s time to wonder whether Fangio has lost sight of how to properly utilize his talent.
