(Photo: Jason Miller, Getty)
Arguably, the most talked-about 5th-round pick in NFL history, Shedeur Sanders, is set to make his fourth career start against the Bears. As I mentioned in the open, he had his best day as a pro despite the loss, with 364 passing yards and four total touchdowns. While I won’t make any proclamations about his long-term NFL future, he certainly has shown flashes that he could be an NFL starter in a couple of years if given the chance. Yet, he struggles with the one thing that almost all rookie quarterbacks struggle with, and that’s when facing pressure against blitzes—this season Sanders is 9/23 for 165 yards, has the third-worst PFF passing grade (40.1), and has a turnover-worthy play percentage of 11.1%.
The Bears face a few problems in that department. They don’t get a lot of pressure overall, sitting 30th in pressure rate, and when they blitzed last week against Jordan Love, they got torched. Love went 9/12 for 171 yards, threw for all three of his touchdowns, and had a perfect passer rating of 156.3. Dennis Allen took accountability for some of the confusion on the blitzes last week, particularly the one where Love threw to Bo Melton at the end of the first half for a big touchdown. We’ll have to wait and see what improvements they make in that area, but if they can get it sorted, they should have a few opportunities to get some turnovers off of Sanders.