Will Sutton wasn’t supposed to fit with the Bears, but he just makes plays

Bears defensive lineman Will Sutton was not supposed to fit in the 3-4 scheme John Fox brought with him from Denver last year. Sutton is undersized for that scheme at only 6’0 and just over 300 pounds. He was drafted a year earlier to play in an up-the-field style 4-3 defense, not two gap at the line of scrimmage. It seemed like he was going to end up being the odd man out, but Sutton had other ideas.

No, Sutton didn’t have some kind of awesome season or anything. But I’ll tell you what, he also did not end up looking overwhelmed in that scheme either. He actually started the first three games of the year. I thought he did a fairly decent job for what he was asked.

He ended up having a triceps injury and missing the next two games and wasn’t quite the same player after that. In the last 10 games, Sutton had just four starts. He wasn’t the same factor against the run he had been early on. However, he still held his own.

While it wasn’t always pretty, I could just see that this kid was giving it everything he had when he was on the field, even when he wasn’t 100 percent healthy.

I could tell at first that some of the stuff he was asked to do was new to him, but his technique got a lot better over time. His effort was constantly very good. When he made a play, I loved how he got demonstrably excited about it. Sometimes one guy’s intensity stands out above everybody on the field. That’s kind of what I felt watching Sutton play.

It’s hard not to root for a guy like that, especially when I watch enough film to know not every guy is selling out like that every play.

However, I don’t want you to get the impression that Sutton isn’t a decent player because I’m going so hard hyping up his effort. That dude is hard to move, and that’s a big deal when you are talking 3-4 defensive linemen. Sutton has a thick lower body that helps him anchor down. That combined “natural leverage,” as we used to call being short, made it hard for offensive linemen to get any kind of movement on him. Not content to just be a road block, Sutton was also good at pushing linemen into the backfield, even from those 3-4 alignments.

Sutton didn’t offer much in the way of pass rush last season, mostly because of where he had to line up and the fact that he didn’t get much playing time on third-and-long. I do think he could do some damage against play action on early downs, if he gets just a little bit better and more precise with his pass rush moves.

I’m picking Will Sutton not necessarily because I think he will have a bunch of gaudy stats, but because I just love the way he plays the game. I don’t know that he will ever have a lot more tackles, but if he stays healthy, he should easily best his 23 tackles from last year.

I especially don’t know if he will ever have a lot of sacks, but hey, he has zero for his career so far so the only place he can go is up. I can’t even be sure that he will make the Bears roster at all this year now that they have more guys who are the “ideal” size for that defense, but if he does they will have a hard time keeping him on the bench.

I’m damn sure pulling for him to show up and show out.