Looking back at my 10 Most Important Chicago Bears of 2017

Don’t skim down to the list!

I repeat, do not skim down to the list!

The list below is last year’s list of my 10 Most Important Chicago Bears, not the 2018 version.

I always take a look back at last year’s version so I can glean what could have gone wrong, or right, but usually wrong, the previous season. It’s fun to see what my expectations were a year ago.

Every year I do this look-back, I get confused skimmers thinking this is my new list. Don’t be that guy.

The word important may mean something different to me than it does to you, and that’s okay. This is a subjective list and you guys may feel a different way. Some may think coaches have no place on a list like this, while other may think rookies don’t belong. Some have an entire position group listed, while others may call that cheating.

Here’s what I’ve always thought of when compiling this individuals on this list.

“What potential impact they may have, how much the team will look to the individual for guidance or leadership, how badly the team would suffer if they lost the player to injury, and other intangible attributes.”

The intangibles is something you can’t define, and it’s what leads me to going mostly with my gut as I compile this list every offseason.

Would you guys believe this in my tenth year doing this list? This was the first assignment my editor gave me ten years ago when I came aboard WCG, so it holds a special place in my heart.

So once again, this is how I had the 2017 Ten Most Important Bears. You can click on the number in front of each name to see the article from last year.

10) Dowell Loggians - I’m still not 100% sold that last year’s predictable and craptastic embarrassment of an offense was all on Loggains. I think John Fox wanted to be uber-conservative with a rookie quarterback. I’ll be interested to see how he does working with Adam Gase in Miami this year.

9) Eddie Goldman - He was coming off an injury plagued 2016 and I felt he needs to come big for the defense to improve. He didn’t have many flashy plays, but his tough run defense helped set the tone for their front seven.

8) Dion Sims - He was paid a lot of money and he should have been an important part of the passing game on play action passes. That never materialized. He only had 15 catches in 14 games.

7) The offensive tackles - The Bears couldn’t afford a regression from either Charles Leno Jr. or Bobby Massie. I thought both played decent football in 2017.

6) Quintin Demps - Demps was added to provide leadership to the secondary and to get some turnovers. He broke his arm week three and is currently out of the league.

5) Cameron Meredith - I was really, really excited to see Meredith play last year. But then he was injured in preseason, and the team decided to let him walk to the Saints this offseason.

4) Mike Glennon - The best thing about the Glennon era is that it gave us Patti’s debut fan fiction.

3) Jerrell Freeman - Freeman needed to bounce back after his suspension in 2016, and he didn’t.

2) Leonard Floyd - This guy has all the talent to be The Man on Chicago’s D, but he missed six games after missing four his rookie year. If he struggles through another injury plagued season at what point do the Bust-birds come out?

1) Jordan Howard - With Glennon and eventually Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback, I knew the team would rely on Jordan Howard a lot. The problem with the Fox/Loggains offense in 2017 was that everyone else knew that too.

I’ll kick off my series with number ten on Monday, and here’s a teaser... Number 10 is a newcomer to Chicago.