Breakout / Surprise Seasons

[adam]

There are two guys that stand out for me when you consider their draft status and or contract vs performance this year.

So far on offense, that is Monangai who has 731 Rush Yards, only 97 fewer rushing yards than Jeanty, but with 69 fewer carries. He also has 140 receiving yards on 14 receptions. With 871 Yards from Scrimmage, he only needs 129 total yards to hit 1K with 2 games left. For a 7th Rounder, that is some crazy production. The Bears are 7-1 when Mongagai gets at least 12 touches, and 4-3 when he doesn't.  Feed him!

On defense, it is Nahshon Wright. 5 INTs and 2 FF, 1 TD, and 11 PD. The Bears are 6-1 when he forces a turnover, and the only loss was the Week 1 debacle vs MIN. I don't know if there is another player who has made impact plays that have directly contributed to wins like he has this year. Then you consider that he was doing this because everyone else was injured and played a bunch of time as CB1 makes it even more amazing. 

 

Other notable guys, are Swift, Wright, Thuney, Dalman, and Jackson on offense. Swift has really changed his running style and I love it. The O-Line vets were expected to be good, but Wright, Thuney, and Dalman are playing near All-Pro levels, and Jackson started off slow, but has really turned into a top 10 RG.  The emergence of Loveland and Burden lately has been exciting as well, but somewhat expected for higher draft picks.

On defense, Byard leads the NFL in INTs and has held down the secondary thru all the injuries. Edmunds was off to a strong start before the injury, hopefully he can get back to that level. The same with Edwards. 

 

On the flip side, the only really disappointing player on offense with a lot of playing time has been Oz. He has dropped a few easy uncontested passes that would've been massive gains and his targets took away from Loveland and Burden's early on. 

On defense, there are a few guys, but Odeyingbo takes the cake for me. Even before injury, he was not living up to his contract size as Edge2. Billings and Brisker have underperformed quite a bit, Gordon's lack of availability and performance when he did play has hurt, and guys like Sewell and McCloud who have played a lot of snaps have severely underperformed, even as backups. QBs have a 140.7 QB Rating when targeting McCloud, a 140.0 when targeting Gordon, a 128.3 when targeting Sewell, and 125.4 when targeting Brisker. Sewell also has a 13.4% missed tackle rate and leads the team in missed tackles. 

 

For the most part it seems like every other player has played within their band of expectations, at least on paper. Did I miss anyone?

[Mongo3451]

Honorable mention to Jackson and Booker to add to the D. 

Commentators keep praising Edmunds for his great season and I don't see it.  I keep seeing him tackle people from the side, instead of him filling a gap.  Our DL is not getting manhandled.  Running backs can patiently wait to see a hole and know they are getting 5 yards.  I believe he played the entire game and recorded one tackle and five assists.  Seven DB's had more solo tackles.

[BearFan PHX]

He hasnt been in enough to qualify for this thread, but Jadae Walker is a sleeper too for the future - assuming he is understanding the playbook - I have read some rumors that he isnt, but I have no actual information about that.

[CrackerDog]

Wright has had great moments and some blown coverages too. On balance he’s been good enough to make the list here though.  OZ has been more bad than good IMO and we can do better than him next year.  

[AZ54]

Run D was starting to look better when Shemar Turner was on the field versus Dayo.  When he returns next year it’ll be as if we added 3 draft picks to the Dline, or 4. . 

[AZ54]

D’Marco Jackson has done well at LB, he even wore the green dot for a couple games.