Are the Chicago Bears Set at Outside Linebacker for 2016?
Published by Matt Eurich on December 18, 2015
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
When the Chicago Bears selected seventh overall in the 2015 NFL draft, the team opted to add a young receiver in Kevin White over a pass-rushing outside linebacker like Clemson’s Vic Beasley.
The Bears already added outside linebacker Pernell McPhee in free agency to get after the quarterback in new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio‘s 3-4 scheme, and it appeared that the team was prepared to move forward with defensive ends-turned-outside linebackers Lamarr Houston and Willie Young on the opposite side of McPhee.
Both Houston and Young struggled early in the year following season-ending injuries they suffered in 2014, but both have been two of the best pass-rushers on the field for the Bears the last few weeks.
McPhee began the season with a lot of fanfare after signing a five-year, $38.75 million contract, and he recorded four sacks in the team’s first two games. He has struggled with a knee injury this year, and he missed Chicago’s Week 10 contest against the St. Louis Rams and this past Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins.
In 11 games, he has recorded a career-high 43 tackles, five sacks, two passes defended and his first career interception. According to Pro Football Focus, McPhee is the fifth-best 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL this season with a plus-29.5 overall grade. In 533 snaps, he has registered 11 quarterback hits and 43 quarterback hurries.
The former Mississippi State standout was Chicago’s most consistent pass-rusher at the start of this season, but opposing teams started to add extra blockers to his side of the field as the year wore on.
McPhee does a great job of exploding off the football, uses his hands well to engage blockers at the line of scrimmage and he gives max effort on every snap.
When healthy, he is the team’s best pass-rusher, and McPhee will begin next season as a starter at outside linebacker.
McPhee‘s spot on the roster for next season is set in stone, but have Houston and Young done enough to hold down a roster spot for next season?
Lamarr Houston Leads the Team in Sacks
Houston joined the Bears in March 2014 as a free agent to play defensive end in then-defensive coordinator Mel Tucker’s 4-3 scheme, but he injured his knee celebrating his first sack of the season and missed the final eight games of the year.
When Fangio was hired this offseason, Houston appeared to be a good fit in Chicago’s new 3-4 defense because of his previous experience playing outside linebacker with the Oakland Raiders, but he started the season slowly.
In the first two games of the year against the Green Bay Packers and the Arizona Cardinals, Houston played just 21 of the team’s 119 snaps on defense. He played 24 snaps against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3, and Fangio reminded everyone that Houston was still trying to come back from his ACL injury.
“People forget he’s coming off an ACL, and it takes time with those,” Fangio said, per the Chicago Tribune‘s Rich Campbell. “Sometimes it takes more than a year to get it back right, and he’s learning a new position. It’s just going to take time, but I believe it will come for him.”
He recorded his first sack of the year in Week 5 against the Kansas City Chiefs and notched two more in Week 9 against the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football. Since Week 9, Houston has registered five sacks in six games. In addition to those five sacks, Houston has also accumulated 14 quarterback hurries while playing 196 of Chicago’s 422 snaps on defense.
Even though he struggled out of the gate this season, Houston feels like he is a good fit in Fangio‘s scheme.
“Hopefully, I’m just showing them I’m a ballplayer,” Houston said, per Campbell. “I don’t think you can label me like, ‘Oh, he just does this,’ or, ‘He can’t do that.’ Pretty much every situation that has me labeled as something I’m not capable of doing, I’ve taken the opportunity and conquered that.”
Houston has gotten stronger as the season has worn on, and not only has he been a force as a pass-rusher, he has also played well against the run. He currently has a plus-6.9 run-defense grade—ninth best among all 3-4 outside linebackers—and he has made a stop against the run on 14.3 percent of his 98 run snaps this year.
The veteran linebacker still has three years remaining on his deal after this season, and he has proven he can be a reliable piece in Fangio‘s system on the outside against both the run and the pass.
Willie Young Has Impressed but Believes He Is Still a Defensive End
Much like Houston, Young started the year off slowly following an Achilles injury he suffered in Week 16 against his former team, the Detroit Lions, but he has been one of the team’s top performers since Week 9 against San Diego.
Young saw his snap counts fluctuate at the beginning of the year, and he was a healthy scratch against the Seahawks in Week 3. However, after the team traded veteran edge-rusher Jared Allen to the Carolina Panthers, Young saw his snap counts increase.
Since Week 9, Young has played 291 of the team’s 422 snaps on defense and has recorded 4.5 sacks since Week 11. He has 28 quarterback hurries and six quarterback hits this season playing out of a two-point stance, but he has not been willing to call himself an outside linebacker.
“I think [Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and I] have a solid argument every day I come into work about me being a defensive end or…uh…that other thing,” Young said on Wednesday, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Dickerson.
Not long ago, the Bears were rumored to be shopping Young on the trade market, per Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole:
Chicago opted to hold onto Young, and he has been one of the team’s most consistent pass-rushers, along with Houston, over the last month. Outside linebackers coach Clint Hurtt thinks a lot of Young’s success this season can be attributed to what the former seventh-round pick does in the classroom.
“I have never seen a guy commit himself in terms of the meeting room and the notes he is taking,” Hurtt said, per the Chicago Tribune‘s Brad Biggs. “He’s taking notes the night before the game, just constantly writing stuff down.”
Young has been used primarily in the team’s nickel package, but he has also been asked to drop in coverage on occasion in Chicago’s base defense. He recorded his first career interception against St. Louis in Week 10, and he currently sits with a plus-2.2 grade in pass coverage.
There is always a chance the Bears could look to move him to a team that runs a 4-3 defense this offseason, but Young is still under contract for one more year and is set to make a modest $2.45 million in 2016.
Young may not want to label himself as an outside linebacker, but he has proven this year that he can handle his own on the outside.
The Bears could always look to get younger at outside linebacker by adding a talented edge-rusher in the 2016 draft, but given how both Houston and Young have performed—combined with greater needs at other positions on the roster—the team appears to have enough talent at the position for next season.
Statistical information courtesy of NFL.com and Pro Football Focus unless otherwise noted. Contract information courtesy of Spotrac.
Matt Eurich is a Chicago Bears featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America.
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