Stock up, stock down: Mostly down after Bears-Bucs

I’ll keep it a short intro this week, because after all there isn’t much left to say after that shellacking at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday.

I will say that I know one of my stock down picks will not be popular, but I am emphasizing that I do not think poorly of that player, in fact, I still like him a lot, but Sunday wasn’t his day.

It wasn’t the day for a lot of Chicago Bears. There’s not much to feel positive about today, but there were a couple things worth highlighting.

Stock up

Khalil Herbert, RB - A week after a strong performance where he just barely missed out on a 100-yard game, he got it in Tampa. Herbert clearly deserves more snaps even when David Montgomery returns because this has the potential of being a thunder and lightning duo. He’s fast, decisive and Zach Pearson tweeted that he has just two carries that have been stopped behind the line of scrimmage.

Roquan Smith, LB - Look, it was kind of a normal game for Smith, but I have to highlight someone, right? A team-leading 13 tackles, one tackle for loss and a pass defense is a solid day. The defense was put in an near-impossible position by the offense and the short fields they were giving Tampa Roquan was his usual great self.

Cairo Santos, K - With him we would have been shutout. His streak continues. Thank you, Cairo.

Stock down

Justin Fields, QB - Look, I am not saying it’s all his fault, but any time the QB has five turnovers on his own, he has to get dinged for it. He had next to no time and I think he is going to learn and improve from this, but it just wasn’t Fields’ day Sunday.

Kindle Vildor, CB - To my eye, he got burned by Chris Godwin a couple times, including drawing a pass interference penalty on the Bucs’ first drive of the game. He also got beat on Brady’s last touchdown to Mike Evans. Jaylon Johnson didn’t have a much better game and granted, Evans is a great receiver, but Vildor gets the spot with the penalty on top of it.

Lachavious Simmons, T - I hate to be tough on a guy who didn’t expect to be starting until a couple hours before the game, but Simmons was straight bad. He got beat by Shaq Barrett on Fields’ first fumble and Jason Pierre-Paul on Fields’ second. He was eventually benched for Alex Bars. Bars isn’t exactly outstanding, but I can’t help but question the depth chart because Simmons was just way overmatched.

Who, not named Matt Nagy, did I miss? Did anyone else have a good enough game to warrant mention?