As we count down to the NFL season, XN Sports will be bringing you 32 questions in 32 days. Each day, we’ll feature one of the most important questions for a different NFL team heading into the opening weekend of the league.
Today’s feature team and question?
The Chicago Bears – Can the team adequately replace Brian Urlacher?
By all indications, former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher is a Hall of Famer. Over his 13-year career with the franchise, the Bears had their share of ups and downs. Urlacher has played on some underachieving Bears teams and was also on one (2006) that reached the Super Bowl. Through it all, the linebacker was the one constant in Chicago over that time.
Urlacher was one of the best linebackers of his era. He twice missed significant playing time due to injury – in 2004 when he played only nine games and 2009 when he suited up for only one. In his other 11 seasons, though, he only failed to record at least 100 tackles twice. Six times, he topped 120 tackles in a season. He finished his career with 1,353 tackles, 41.5 sacks, and an impressive 22 interceptions.
Over the past three years, though, Urlacher’s stats have been on the decline. After recording 125 tackles in 2010, those numbers have dipped in each of the past two years. His 68 tackles in 2012 are a bit misleading since he played in only 12 games, but Urlacher’s tackles per game have also lessened. In 2010, he recorded 7.8 tackles a game. That number shrunk to 6.4 in 2011 and 5.7 last year. Outside of 2009 when he played in only one game, his 2013 average was easily the lowest of his career as were his 68 tackles.
While the Bears wanted to keep the linebacker, the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement on a new deal. After briefly making himself available on the free agent market, Urlacher retired, finishing his career in a Chicago Bears uniform. Without him, the Bears are looking for a middle linebacker for the first time in more than a decade. So can the team get adequate production from his replacement?
Replacing Urlacher should be D.J. Williams, a linebacker added by the Bears this offseason, or rookie Jon Bostic. Williams was expected to win the job, but has missed a lot of practice time with a calf injury and isn’t expected back for another week or so. Because of that, the door has been opened to Bostic, the team’s second-round draft pick earlier this year. While the job looked like Williams’ to lose, Bostic could swoop in and grab it since he’s been healthy.
Another scenario might have Bostic starting early in the season with Williams snatching the job when he’s fully healthy and gets some playing time behind him. Either way, the job is up in the air right now.
Williams comes over from the Denver Broncos and the former first-round pick could be a solid replacement for Urlacher this year if he wins the job. However, he also comes to the team with a variety of issues.
On the field, Williams appears like an adequate fit at first glance. He played only sparingly in 2012 (we’ll get to that in a minute), but has been highly productive over his career. In the five previous years, 2007 – 2011, he averaged 113 tackles a season. In 2007, he led the AFC with 141 stops. Williams hasn’t had nearly as much success in dropping back and defending the pass as Urlacher has, but at only 31, he gives Chicago a much younger option. If he’s on the field, Williams should be able to surpass Urlacher’s production from last season.
Off of it things have gone much different for the linebacker. In 2005, Williams pled guilty to driving drunk. In 2010, he was cited for a DUI and in 2012, was suspended for six games after failing a drug test. After the 2010 DUI, Williams was demoted and in 2012, played sparingly in seven games before being released.
Williams has a lot to prove and the move is a bit of a gamble. If he stays out of trouble and on the field, he will be an effective player. That’s a big ‘if’, though, and the move is really a bit of a gamble for the Bears. The team has not only opened its doors to him, but might give him the starting middle linebacker spot. Losing him to any off-field issues would be a big blow to the defense as they scramble to replace him.
The key here is that Urlacher’s production had been dropping as he’s gotten older and there was a good chance it would have decreased a bit more in 2013. Because of that, Williams and Bostic should be an adequate replacement for this season.
