Khalil Mack garnered a ton of attention for his play against the Seahawks on Monday, and Roquan Smith certainly raised some eyebrows with how he performed in his first start. But it was the longest tenured member of the team’s linebackers corps that came away with the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week award.
Danny Trevathan earned the honors with a dominant performance against Seattle in front of a prime-time audience on Monday Night Football. He is the first Bears player to win it since Eddie Jackson last year and first Bears linebacker to do so since Brian Urlacher did it in Week 9 of the 2012 season.
The 28-year-old linebacker was a menace in every facet of the game as his relentless pursuit of anyone carrying the football was on another level. Trevathan was a play-maker at every level, coming away with eight tackles (six solo), two sacks, a tackle for loss, two QB hits, and a forced fumble that led to a turnover. Getting the first two-sack game of your career against Russell Wilson is no small feat, so this award was definitely well-earned by Trevathan.
The Bears signed Trevathan as a free agent in 2016 to shore up what had been a leaky middle of the defense prior to his arrival. Trevathan won a Super Bowl with Denver in 2015, then followed his former head coach John Fox to Chicago with the hope of being a part of another championship-caliber defense. Two games into the 2018 season, that group certainly can make an argument for looking the part. And with Trevathan in the middle of it all, the idea of riding the defense to glory isn’t as far-fetched as it once was before this season started.