Outside linebacker Leonard Floyd is expected to miss some time after suffering a knee injury in the Chicago Bears’ Week 11 loss to the Detroit Lions. However, John Fox shared a hint of optimism that the injury isn’t as bad as it could have been during his meeting with the media at Halas Hall on Monday.
Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune tweets the Bears’ head coach does not believe Floyd suffered a torn ACL, which all things considered, could be the best news to come from an awful situation. Fox would go on to take a more cautious stance by saying he would reserve final prognosis until the entire medical evaluation was complete.
Floyd injured his knee in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss when he was on the receiving end of some friendly fire from cornerback Kyle Fuller who was trying to make a tackle on a Lions ball carrier. After the game, Fox described Floyd’s injury as “fairly serious” … which it still could be. Fox would not rule out placing Floyd on injured reserve, which would put an end to what looked to be a promising second season in Chicago.
Losing Floyd for any amount of time will be a significant loss for a Bears defense that already has three starters on injured reserve. Floyd was heating up after a slow start, picking up 5.5 sacks in six games prior to his Week 11 injury. Had the Bears’ 2016 first-round pick continued at that pace, he could have finished with a 10-sack season.
One knock on Floyd coming into the season was a belief that the outside linebacker/edge rusher was injury prone. Floyd missed four games and played on just 49.9 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps as a rookie dealing with a calf injury and concussion problems. He seemed to have silenced those criticisms by playing on 90 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in 2017.
We’ll be looking for more updates as they come available, but avoiding an ACL tear brings a sense of relief when things could have been much worse. Hopefully, Fox and the Bears can share some more optimistic news in the coming days.