Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes Bears head coach Matt Eberflus on Jack Sanborn.
“If you go back and look at the preseason, you saw what kind of player he was,” Eberflus said. “He’s very instinctual, makes a lot of plays on the ball, always reads his keys. He’s always on it that way. We’re pleased with where he’s going.”
I was listening to a podcast the other day where the hosts stated that they were worried because the Bears had “once again” not identified a player early in the season and failed to put them into the games until later than it should’ve happened.
I don’t think this is the case with Sanborn. A spot at linebacker was opened up when the Bears traded Roquan Smith. I would say it’s likely that one of the reasons the Bears felt comfortable trading Smith was the fact that Sanborn was behind him and was developing into what looked like a decent linebacker.
Is Sanborn a decent linebacker? We really don’t know yet. But he led the team in tackles his first 2 games with 19. Sixteen of those were solo and 2 were for loss. He has 2 sacks.
If the Bears had Sanborn in mind when they let Smith go, I’d say that the indications are that it was a good call.