When the Bears hired John Fox nearly three years ago, he said he was more interested in having Super Bowl players than Pro Bowl players.
The franchise was forced to settle for neither when the NFL announced the Pro Bowl rosters Tuesday night. It’s the third consecutive year the Bears have been shut out on Pro Bowl players at the initial announcement of the rosters. Obviously, the only way any of their players are going to Super Bowl LII is with a ticket.
The Bears joined the Packers, Colts, Jets and Browns, Sunday’s opponent at Soldier Field, as the only franchises without a Pro Bowl representative.
It doesn’t mean players like running back Jordan Howard and defensive end Akiem Hicks will not be added as replacements when others become ineligible because of their teams’ deep playoff runs and some choose to bow out because of injuries or lack of interest. Howard is fourth in the NFL with 1,069 yards rushing and tied for fifth with seven touchdowns. Hicks has a career-high eight sacks and 15 tackles for loss. Howard and guard Josh Sitton were added as replacements last season. Kyle Long was a replacement addition for the 2016 game.
Hicks was stung, but he’s in a tough spot as a 3-4 defensive end measured against 4-3 defensive ends who amass greater pass-rushing statistics.
“Man, it’s like telling a kid he ain’t getting no presents for Christmas, you know what I mean?” Hicks said. “But I’ll be all right.
“It doesn’t really work out when you don’t have a record to match the performance, right? I go out there and lay it out there every week. But you know, the respect of your peers is something you always want. My little high-fives after the game with other guys that play my position and stuff like that gives me enough respect to carry me over this offseason.”
The Bears reversed a long-standing club policy of not announcing alternates and revealed Wednesday that Howard is a first alternate behind the Rams’ Todd Gurley and the Saints’ Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara. Hicks is a fourth alternate, and rookie Tarik Cohen is a second alternate as a returner. Long, who is on injured reserve, is a second alternate. The release of names was a wise move by the Bears, who can use all the positive publicity they can drum up as this season grinds to a close.
Balloting from fans, players and coaches determines the rosters, with each group counting one-third in the process. Criticism of the Pro Bowl is that it is a popularity contest that becomes crowded with players from winning teams or with reputations created many years ago. While that is true to a degree, no one following a team with six players selected to the game is going to cry “sham” when that happens.
The issue at play here is the Bears have the same problem they did three years ago — a critical shortage of playmakers, elite players who catch the attention of fans, players and coaches. How much better is the current roster than it was three years ago? The win-loss record tells you it’s not improved enough, and it’s difficult to construct a Super Bowl team without having some Pro Bowl players in place first.
The Bears have managed to get rid of some talented but troubled players as well as some talented but older players. They ran out players they considered character problems whom former general manager Phil Emery had collected, but they haven’t replaced them with enough playmakers. They thought they were getting a replacement for Brandon Marshall when they drafted Kevin White, and then they figured White would be a suitable replacement for Alshon Jeffery. As injuries pretty much have sidelined White’s career to date, the Bears have produced no replacements for two Pro Bowl-caliber performers.
The Bears’ struggles are tied most closely to quarterback, and they decided to stick with Jay Cutler in 2015 after the regime change, citing the bulky contract he had received from Emery. They sunk $18.5 million guaranteed in Mike Glennon, which is about what the team would have had to eat if it had launched Cutler when Emery and coach Marc Trestman left.
Jets quarterback Josh McCown, a veteran in his 15th season who was with the Bears from 2011-13, was named a fifth alternate in the AFC, and the Vikings’ Case Keenum at least has generated some chatter as a dark-horse MVP candidate as he has thrown for 3,219 yards and 20 touchdowns in rescuing a Vikings season that looked kaput after Sam Bradford was lost in September. McCown and Keenum were available when the Bears pounced on Glennon in free agency.
Now it’s about building around first-round draft pick Mitch Trubisky and finding and developing the kind of playmakers he needs to become an elite quarterback. If Trubisky turns into a franchise quarterback, the Bears ought to have some players. Until then, they will have to settle for other affirmations that they’re getting better.
“Mom told me I did my job this year,” Hicks said. “So I’ll take that with me.”
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