Chicago Bears edge defender Leonard Floyd might not be long for the club life:
Leonard Floyd will meet with Bears trainers before practice today to see if he can downsize from the club that’s been on his hand to something smaller. Sounded confident that would be the case but didn’t know for sure yet.
— JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) September 19, 2018
Floyd meeting with the training staff with the idea of downsizing the protective club on his right hand is a good sign that his injured right hand is feeling better. And if Floyd’s hand is feeling better, then we are going to be feeling better about him playing at a higher level and reaching his potential sooner rather than later.
Should the Bears’ training staff find a better fit for Floyd’s hand, it would be another positive for a defense that can make a claim for being the best in the league after two weeks. Because while his hand being in a protective club hasn’t kept Floyd off the field, playing with it has limited some of the things he can do as a pass-rusher, especially one just getting a feel for how to properly use his hands to engage and discard offensive linemen. At least the club didn’t get in the way of Floyd recovering a fumble forced by teammate/NFC Defensive Player of the Week Danny Trevathan in Monday night’s win against the Seahawks.
It doesn’t seem like it will be long until Floyd’s hand is out of a protective cast altogether. Now, imagine what an already fearsome front seven could do with Floyd at full strength. We’ll continue to monitor Floyd’s situation as we approach Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.