Just when we started to feel good about the potential of a Leonard Floyd breakout season, the injury bug bit again.
The Chicago Bears confirmed Floyd fractured his right hand during the team’s preseason game against the Denver Broncos, which is a pretty big blow to a position group that was already thin on talent, upside, and healthy bodies. Despite the news of the fracture, Head Coach Matt Nagy remains optimistic that the team’s top pass-rusher could still play in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers. Nagy said Floyd had successful surgery on Sunday and shared a bit of optimism when it came to the possibility of Floyd playing through it.
To be clear, it doesn’t sound like Floyd’s injury is going to be completely healed by the time the Bears and Packers lace ’em up in Week 1. But there is a distinct possibility that Floyd could play through the injury, possibly while wearing a cast on his hand.
So there’s your case for cautious optimism, allow it to sink in if that’s something you want to do.
I suppose the news regarding Floyd’s injury could have been much worse, but there is no doubt Chicago needs its top pass-rusher if it is going to put up a strong fight (let alone, pull off an upset) in Green Bay. Floyd, who has missed 10 games in his first two seasons, has 3.5 sacks and four quarterback hits in four career games against the Packers. So yeah, not having Floyd at 100 percent against Green Bay is less than ideal. But it would be worse not to have him at all.
It seems safe to presume we won’t see Floyd take the field for the next two preseason games. With that in mind, this opens up an opportunity for the outside linebackers currently on the Bears’ roster to earn a bigger role by playing well as the preseason comes to a close. That means the likes of Sam Acho, Aaron Lynch, Kylie Fitts, Isaiah Irving, and Kasim Edebali now have opportunity knocking on their doors.