Category: 2021 season

Bears 2021 ILB review: Roquan Smith continues to shine

We’re taking a look at how the Bears inside linebackers fared in 2021.

The Chicago Bears wrapped another disappointing season that resulted in the firings of general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. With the offseason in full swing, it provides an opportunity for the new regime in GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus to look back at went right, what went wrong and how to improve in 2022.

Here at Bears Wire, we’re going position by position through the 2021 Bears and grading every player. Next up is inside linebacker, the position group that boasts arguably the team’s best player in Roquan Smith.

PREVIOUS POSITION REVIEWS: QB, RB, WR, TE, OL, DL, OLB

Cowboys’ Micah Parsons played with lingering hyperextended knee in 2021

Micah Parsons created nightmares for offenses league-wide as a rookie, and now it’s been revealed he did so while playing injured. | From @StarConscience

Rookie linebacker Micah Parsons looked like a 10-year veteran as a rookie in 2021 by terrorizing opposing offenses with his diverse skillset which led to him taking snaps at several different positions and garnering him First-Team All-Pro honors. He lived up to and surpassed all expectations that were placed upon him, but now, his historic season looks even more impressive with an alarming detail recently revealed.

The newly-crowned Defensive Rookie of the Year sat down with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report for an exclusive one-on-one interview about his rookie campaign. The former Penn State Nittany Lion revealed that he suffered a hyperextended knee in the Cowboys training camp practice with the Los Angeles Rams who will play in Super Bowl LVI this Sunday. The injury lingered throughout the season.

“It was just something that kept lingering,” Parsons said. “When you hyperextend something it needs rest. But I was like, ‘I can’t take no rest.'”

That’s an unbelievable revelation.

Parsons recorded a sack in six straight games from Week 9 to Week 14 and totaled 13 for the season. Mixing in 20 tackles for loss and 30 quarterback hits, it’s unreal to think that he did so while playing injured.

Dallas was seen as a favorite to make a serious run in the NFC and challenge for their sixth Lombardi trophy this postseason. Instead, the 26-year drought continued with a less than flattering performance against the San Francisco 49ers at home in the first round. Parsons mentioned during HBO’s Hard Knocks last summer that he believed that the Cowboys would be in the Super Bowl in the next three years, and he isn’t backing off that statement.

“I do really believe that, Parsons told Rooks. “I see the guys around me and all the guys want it. If we clean the little things, oh my gosh, the sky is the limit.”

Parsons participated in the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas last week. While he seemed to make the best of his time by playing in a Madden tournament with his colleagues and winning the NFL’s Fastest Man race, he also talked about how the thing he would remember the most about his rookie season was the Cowboys losing in the first round.

During his conversation with Rooks, Parsons again expressed disappointment about how the 2021 season ended and said it will give him more of an appetite to dominate in year two.

“I didn’t expect to go out like that (in the playoffs),” said Parsons. “That’s one bad thing about the Cowboys, when we lose, everybody is happy we lose. It just builds something inside. I think next year is going to be a different type of hunger for me.”

The thought of what a motivated and fully healthy Parsons can do in 2022 should cause some sleepless nights for offensive coordinators around the NFL.

 

Cowboys LB Micah Parsons wins NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year

The Cowboys’ young lion took the world by storm as a rookie, and earned the ultimate honor for his rookie-year performance.

The Dallas Cowboys made a dream come true when they selected Micah Parsons with the No. 12 overall pick in last April’s draft. Then Parsons turned around and made the dreams of every member of that organization and the fanbase come true as well. A lifelong Cowboys fan took immediate ownership of the linebacker group, and basically the defense as a whole from the first moment he stepped on the practice field. The fans got to witness his leadership and gregarious nature through HBO Hard Knock’s training camp documentary.

Still none of that could prepare for what Parsons was able to do once the games mattered. Parsons took the NFL world by storm, using his intelligence, speed and elite athleticism combined with an insane drive to be the best ever into one of the most impressive rookie seasons of all time. And with that, he earned the AP honor of 2021 Defensive Rookie of the Year. Unanimously, the first in the award’s history.

Parsons played both linebacker and edge rusher, securing 13 sacks (team rookie record) along with 84 tackles, three pass defenses and three forced fumbles. He also finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, signaling just how much of an impact he had on a Dallas defense that went from No. 28 in points allowed to No. 7 thanks mostly to his influence.

Parsons of course was named to the Pro Bowl (where he won the NFL fastest’s man race) and was a First-Team All-Pro as well.

NFL Honors: Cowboys DC Dan Quinn wins 2021 Assistant Coach of the Year

The Cowboys got hot in the turnover department down the stretch in 2020. Dan Quinn took the ball and ran with it figuratively. His players did so literally in 2021 and now he’s honored for his work.

The Dallas Cowboys’ defense made a swift and monumental 180 compared to where they stood a year prior. After Mike McCarthy’s first year, he had to show his hand-picked defensive coordinator the door. In stepped Dan Quinn, former Atlanta Falcons head coach and immediately the club’s defense improved.

A player’s coach, Quinn came in enthusiastically and his personality immediately resonated with his players after a year of disgruntled compliance with Nolan. A breath of fresh air to the veterans and a continued father figure to the young players worked out well, along with all that he studied about the NFL in the time he got to watch the 2020 season after being fired mid-year in Atlanta. The Cowboys improved from 28th in scoring defense to No. 7 and led the league in forced turnovers (34) and interceptions (23).  Quinn’s efforts were recognized Thursday night at the NFL Honors ceremony when he won the 2021 Assistant Coach of the Year award.

The club scored six different times on the season as CB Trevon Diggs (11) and rookie sensation linebacker Micah Parsons (13) became the first teammates to have 10 or more interceptions and 10 or more sacks.

Quinn was a hot commodity in the head coaching searches following the season, but after missing out of the jobs he most wanted, reportedly turned down other offers to remain in Dallas to hunt for a title with the Cowboys.

Entering the season, Quinn’s resume as a coordinator was just two seasons long. He adopted the league’s best defense in Seattle (one he helped raise), ranked No. 1 two years in a row for a Super Bowl winning and runner-up club, then parlayed that into the Falcons’ gig. There, he led that team to a Super Bowl appearance though they weren’t able to seal the deal.

The Cowboys defense turned the corner when it came to turning over the opposition. Their 34 takeaways lead the league and they had the most interceptions (26) in the league since 2018. 50% of their games last season resulted in allowing 400 or more yards. That was down to 29% in 2021.

Normally it takes about a year and a half to two years for a team to fully sink into a new defense, so there’s a chance despite an expected turnover regression, the defense might be even better in 2022 than it was this past season now that Quinn is back.

 

Bears 2021 DL review: Who sticks around in Matt Eberflus’ defense?

We’re taking a look at how the Bears defensive line fared in 2021.

The Chicago Bears wrapped another disappointing season that resulted in the firings of general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. With the offseason in full swing, it provides an opportunity for the new regime in GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus to look back at went right, what went wrong and how to improve in 2022.

Here at Bears Wire, we’re going position by position through the 2021 Bears and grading every player. Now that we’ve gone through the offense, it’s time to shift our focus to the defense, beginning with the defensive line. With the change in scheme and pending free agents on the line, we may have seen the last of quite a few of these players.

PREVIOUS POSITION REVIEWS: QB, RB, WR, TE, OL

NFL analysts unanimously predict Cowboys LB Micah Parsons to win Defensive Rookie of the Year

Parsons got all 29 votes from the panel as they projected the year-end awards; he also received a vote for Defensive Player of the Year. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The league will hand out its end-of-season hardware this week with the 11th edition of NFL Honors. Along with the official reveal of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022, fans will also learn who The Associated Press has awarded with its seven major accolades.

If the predictions made by the panel, composed of analysts from NFL Network and NFL.com, are any indication of the actual final tally, the Cowboys look to be well represented. Two players off the Dallas roster received votes from the 29 experts; one was the only unanimous selection of the year.

Micah Parsons is projected to be the Defensive Rookie of the Year by the panel, which includes notable names like Brian Baldinger, Judy Battista, Gil Brandt, DeAngelo Hall, Maurice Jones-Drew, Steve Mariucci, Willie McGinest, Kurt Warner, and Lance Zierlein.

Parsons got all 29 votes from the network’s panel as the likely recipient of this year’s award. Washington’s Chase Young was 2020’s winner; past honorees in the category include Nick Bosa, Darius Leonard, Aaron Donald, Luke Kuechly, Von Miller, Ndamukong Suh, Brian Urlacher, Derrick Thomas, Lawrence Taylor, and Mean Joe Greene.

“[H]e might be the best [linebacker] since Lawrence Taylor entered the league in 1981,” Brandt said of Parsons. “The only first-year pro to top 80 tackles and 10 sacks in the last quarter-century, per NFL Research, Parsons is, quite simply, one of the best I’ve ever seen as a rookie at his position.”

What made the Penn State phenom’s first pro season even more remarkable is that he excelled not only as a linebacker, but also when lining up at defensive end.

“What speaks to Micah this year is the versatility, playing some end and playing ‘backer,” said Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn last month. “And having a chance to do that as a rookie, I think that is a challenge. And he has certainly answered that one.”

Parsons admitted the award had crossed his mind as well during the season.

“I mean, of course,” he said back in early December when asked. “For any football player, you have to have some personal goals as well as team goals. I feel like the way I’m performing, the way I’m playing, as long as I keep going and never let up, all of that stuff is going to come.”

Parsons had been talked about during the season as a potential candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, too, but his stats tapered off some as the team cooled down the home stretch of the season. He still received one vote for that award, which the panel ultimately forecasted going to Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was considered a leading contender to win Comeback Player of the Year early in the season. He got off to a torrid pace in September, that after an eleven-month rehab from the ankle dislocation and compound fracture he suffered in October 2020.

Prescott missed a game in late October due to a calf strain; a midseason slump followed, and he never truly returned to award-winning form. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, meanwhile, bounced back from his own devastating 2020 lower-leg injury and took the Bengals on an improbable run to a conference title.

NFL Network’s panel gave Burrow the nod for Comeback Player of the Year; Prescott got six votes.

The panel chose Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers as the league’s Most Valuable Player, the Rams’ Cooper Kupp as Offensive Player of the Year, Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase as Offensive Rookie of the Year, and Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel as Coach of the Year.

These predictions have no bearing on who will actually take home the awards, but they may offer a glimpse into what fans can expect when the winners’ names are announced. NFL Honors will be broadcast live on ABC at 9 p.m. ET this Thursday.

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Bears’ Justin Fields had the top-selling jersey in Wisconsin

Aaron Rodgers might own the Bears. But Justin Fields owns the best-selling jersey in Wisconsin for the 2021 season.

From the moment Justin Fields was drafted, Bears fans have been riding a high of excitement for arguably the best quarterback prospect they’ve ever had.

It didn’t take long for multiple Fields jerseys — home and away — to become the best-selling jerseys in the NFL before the start of the 2021 season. Since then, Fields jerseys have become plentiful and recognizable, so it’s not a surprise that Fields had the top-selling jersey in Illinois last season, according to Lids.

But what is shocking is that the best-selling jersey in Wisconsin was — wait for it — Fields.

For real.

No Aaron Rodgers. No Davante Adams. Just the quarterback of Green Bay’s arch rivals.

It’s no secret that some Bears fans live in Wisconsin and some Packers fans live in Illinois, but it was certainly surprising given Green Bay has several superstars on their roster. Granted, with the Rodgers drama and Adams slated to hit free agency, it’s not entirely shocking to see another name take over the top jersey spot.

With uncertainty surrounding Rodgers’ future with the Packers, the NFC North could be Fields’ for the taking should Rodgers leave. Despite a rocky rookie season, the future is bright for Fields, who will have Rodgers’ former quarterbacks coach developing an offense around Fields.

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Bears 2021 OL grades: Plenty of questions on the interior and at tackle

We’re taking a look at how the Bears offensive line fared in 2021.

The Chicago Bears wrapped another disappointing season that resulted in the firings of general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. With the offseason in full swing, it provides an opportunity for the new regime in GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus to look back at went right, what went wrong and how to improve in 2022.

Here at Bears Wire, we’re going position by position through the 2021 Bears and grading every player. Today, we’re evaluating the offensive line, a unit that struggled, giving up a league-leading 58 sacks and allowed pressure on nearly 37 percent of dropbacks, the second-highest rate in the NFL in 2021.

PREVIOUS POSITION REVIEWS: QBS, RBs, WRs, TEs

Bears 2021 End of Year Awards: Picking MVP, Breakout Player of the Year and more

As we look to close the page on the 2021 season, our Bears Wire staff share their picks for MVP, Comeback Player of the Year and more.

The Chicago Bears wrapped another disappointing season that resulted in a dismal 6-11 record and the firings of both general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. While there were some standout performances and reasons to be optimistic about the future, the 2021 season was an absolute brutal one.

As we look to close the page on the 2021 season, our Bears Wire staff share their picks for our End of Year Awards, including MVP, Offense and Defensive Players of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year and Most Disappointing Player.

Bears 2021 TE review: Things are looking up for Cole Kmet

We’re taking a look at how the Bears tight ends fared in 2021.

The Chicago Bears wrapped another disappointing season that resulted in the firings of general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. With the offseason in full swing, it provides an opportunity for the new regime in GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus to look back at went right, what went wrong and how to improve in 2022.

Here at Bears Wire, we’re going position by position through the 2021 Bears and grading every player. We’re continuing with a position that’s been under scrutiny for a few years: tight end, where Cole Kmet took a step forward as Jimmy Graham took his final step in Chicago.

PREVIOUS POSITION REVIEWS: QBS, RBs, WRs