Bears Blitz

Published by Bear Heiser on December 1, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The Lance Briggs era in Chicago likely is over. The Bears announced Friday that the 12-year veteran was placed on injured reserve, ending his season.

Briggs suffered a groin injury in the Bears’ Week 12 win over Lovie Smith and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He then missed Chicago’s Thanksgiving Day game against the Detroit Lions—an absolute must-win—before officially shutting it down.

“Obviously it’s a big loss for us,” Jonathan Bostic said. “Losing a great player, a leader in our locker room for our team. [A] guy [who]’s played a lot of good football around this league for a long time. Losing a guy like him is going to be hard to replace.”

It’s hard to know how to feel about Briggs’ career in Chicago. Briggs flew under the radar for a full 10 years, while Lovie was the head coach and future Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher had the spotlight, both leading the team through the 2000s.

Briggs was never the player Urlacher showed to be during his 10-plus seasons with the organization, but the former Arizona Wildcat thrived with Urlacher by his side, being named in seven Pro Bowl teams and three All-Pro teams.

If Briggs’ career in Chicago is indeed done, he’ll finish with 1,178 tackles, 95.5 tackles for a loss, 15 sacks, 16 interceptions, 19 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries and six defensive touchdowns in 173 games (170 starts).

A former foe with the Minnesota Vikings and current teammate Jared Allen says that Briggs’ career is worthy of the Hall of Fame, via ChicagoBears.com:

In my book, I’d say so. The guy’s done some incredible things. What is he, a seven-time Pro Bowler? If you look back at what the linebacker position has meant, and there’s probably no bigger team or organization of the linebacker position where the linebacker position is more highlighted than the Bears.

I would have to say he’s one of the top [players]. I mean, the years he and [Brian] Urlacher came up, I can go back and watch and remember those guys taking over games and changing games and winning games.

But after Lovie was fired and Urlacher wasn’t re-signed by the Bears before the 2013 season, Briggs was left as one of the few holdovers from Smith era. Briggs was “upset and hurt” over Lovie’s firing, via the USA Today, which is a likely reason why his career went on such a downswing when Marc Trestman and Mel Tucker took over as head coach and defensive coordinator respectively.

Briggs was never the same player under the new regime, recording career lows in tackles and games played. The linebacker only played nine games in 2013, missing time due to a shoulder injury. When he returned, he did so looking apathetic and out of shape, something that never would have happened if Lovie and Urlacher were still in town.

Then, to start the 2014 season, Briggs took one of the most infamous personal days in NFL history, asking out of practice so he could attend the grand opening of his restaurant in northern California. Briggs took some heat over his decision to leave the team during a game week, but the veteran didn’t seem to care.

Briggs’ season got worse during a three-game stretch he missed due to a rib injury, when he said the following, at a time when the Bears really needed a veteran leader to step up and steer the ship, via John Mullin of CSNChicago.com:

Shoot, I don’t know what to do with myself sometimes. Sometimes I sit in meetings while coaches are talking and sometimes the words kind of just phase out and I’m staring at the screen. The only thing I can tell is the time, and I’ll look up at the screen and be like ‘Dang, still got 55 minutes left.’ It’s just been different man, just different.

Now, just a handful of weeks later, Briggs’ career as a member of the Chicago Bears is likely done. Hopefully, Briggs will be remembered more for his first 10 seasons than his last two.

Tucker clearly believes it will be the former for Briggs’ legacy, via ChicagoBears.com:

There are a lot of things about Lance to like. Obviously he’s a playmaker and he’s got a ton of experience. I just thought he was a good teammate and has always been willing to help the younger guys. And it was important to him. He’s done it for a long time. The average career is what, 3.5 years, something like that. So for a guy to be able to do it for that long at such a high level, he’s a special player.

With Briggs now on the sideline, the defense will look a bit different for this season and seasons to come. For now, it looks like Bostic will get the first crack at filling Briggs’ shoes on the weak side. Bostic, a second-year player out of Florida, has been up and down since joining the Bears.

“Jon has good instincts,” Tucker said. “He’s got good speed. He runs and he hits, and he’s strong at the point of attack. He has good movement skills in coverage.”

Bostic is coming off one of the best games of his short career, playing every snap against the Lions, recording nine tackles and five defensive stops in the loss. This bodes well for his development over the remainder of the season, but he’ll now have to do so without Briggs, something Bostic talked about Sunday, via Michael C. Wright of ESPNChicago.com:

I learned so much [from Briggs]. It’s more than I could state. I’m still learning from him. We talk about things each and every day. Even during that Detroit game, middle of the game, he’s saying, ‘Hey, you need to do this. You need to do that.’ Lance had a great run and I learned so much from him.

The weak-side linebacker, in his short career, appears to be a better run blocker than in pass coverage. Bostic has the one thing coaches can’t coach into a player: speed. However, the youngster so far has been unable to harness that speed and turn it into production on the field. He still lacks the instincts that made those who came before him, Urlacher and Briggs, such successful players.

Trestman talked about Bostic’s positive attributes, via ChicagoBears.com:

He plays hard. He plays fast. He’s continued to get better. He’s making calls. He’s doing the things. He’s just got to continue to grow and, like a lot of our young guys, just get better. But he’s becoming very productive in there. He’s got great quickness and suddenness to be able to react and respond in zone coverages as well as fit the line of scrimmage. …

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Bostic rates as the 19th-best inside linebacker of those who have played at least 25 percent of their team’s snaps.

Against the Lions, Bostic was one of the Bears’ best run defenders, holding running back Joique Bell to 91 yards on 23 carries. Bell had a 22-yard carry late in the game after it was already out of reach. So if you’re more of an optimist, when it counted, the Bears held Bell and the Lions to 69 yards on 22 carries—an average of 3.13 yards per attempt.

Now that Bostic will be on the field on a more consistent basis, he’ll be expected to make more plays on a consistent basis. No more dropping two possible interceptions against a struggling Josh McCown. The ability to finish is what makes good players great.

Bostic now has a chance to solidify himself as a cornerstone in the future of this organization, following in the footsteps of a player who gave 12 years to the Bears and the city of Chicago. With two years left on his rookie deal, there is still time to see whether this kid can play.

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