Paul Lasike’s 2016 NFL Season In Review
If you wanna win the NFL Most Valuable Player award then it really helps to be a quarterback. Every now and then a running back will come along and do something special but it really does need to be special. That’s why they have a defensive player of the year award too, so those poor beggars can get some recognition as well, although it helps if you’ve been inhaling sacks and interceptions all year. A good inside linebacker has to be pretty outstanding to get noticed beyond his own team. At least offensive role players can still get fantasy points, right?
Not so much Paul Lasike. In his first season in the NFL he’s concluded things with a total of 1.10 points, supposing you’re playing by the standard scoring system. That’s 50th and last on his Chicago Bears team and amongst the lowest scorers in the league. But you know what? Things are different for Lasike, he’s not some top star prodigy out of college, he’s an undrafted kiwi who had to battle for his right to be there every day of the pre-season and beyond. It’s been an up and down, topsy turvy kinda year for our Paul, but that’s the life of a fringe NFL player.
In 2015 he spent pre-season with the Arizona Cardinals. He’d score a touchdown in one game there but was cut as the regular season hit the horizon and found himself on the Chicago Bears, lucky enough to be picked up by another team. He then had to deal with some paperwork regarding his visa and new employers but once that was sorted he was a man with a contract. Albeit a practice squad one, Lasike would spend the rest of the 2015 campaign as one of the Bears’ ten PS roster players, taking scout team reps in training but ineligible to play in the real stuff.
That the Bears invested in him was a positive sign and in early January 2016 he was one of nine players to be inked to reserve/futures contracts. With the Bears intending to implement a fullback in their new offence (Dowell Loggains promoted to offensive coordinator after Adam Gase left to become the new Miami Dolphins head coach), he had a good chance of making the active roster and having logged a few reps in preseason that’s exactly what happened. The dust cleared and there was a kiwi on an NFL team.
For more of the situation and journey that led to him making the roster, have a read of this bad boy. This particular piece is all about the season that was, roller coaster tax included. See, that’s the thing about playing on a 3-13 team. Roster changes were regular and answers were few, which led to an end of roster guy like Lasike finding himself juggled between this and that the whole way through. Such is the life, NFL playing spots are notoriously tenuous.
Last season the Bears were 5-6 heading into week 13 in their first campaign under head coach John Fox. They ended up 6-10 and comfortably missed the playoffs. This season the mere concept of the playoffs was a pipe dream. No team had more players placed on injured reserves than the Bears and their 19 ailments while the quarterback situation was a constant shift. Their best running back and only Pro Bowler wasn’t even active in the first week (Jordan Howard) and the 3-13 record that they ended up with is the worst the franchise has ever suffered in a 16 game season.
So… no, things weren’t well arranged for an inexperienced fullback to thrive. Lasike was named a starter in the opening week and would appear in 25% of offensive snaps, a mark he wouldn’t better all season. 14 snaps on offence and then also 6 snaps on special teams. No touches of the ball but plenty of opportunity as a blocker.
It might have been a bit much too soon, as the Bears couldn’t do anything with a one-point lead after three quarters and went down 23-14 to the Houston Texans. Here’s a vid of Lasike slipping off a block and costing a couple yards. Whoopsies.
The next week Lasike had his offensive snaps cut to a mere five, although he also had more of an impact. With the Bears trying to sustain a drive in midfield, the coaches dialled up Lasike’s number on a 3rd & 1 and he got them exactly that and change – a bust up the middle for two yards, which by the way made him New Zealand’s all-time leading NFL leader. Jay Cutler hit Alshon Jeffrey for 49 yards on the very next play and that had them in the red zone.
A few plays later, Lasike was in the action again with a strong goal-line block to help Jeremy Langford in for a one yarder TD. Enough for a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles. They’d go on to lose 29-14.
The day after that game, Lasike was waived by the Chicago Bears. Jay Cutler had gotten injured against the Eagles, continued long enough to throw a stupid interception, and then soon enough found himself out ruled out for a couple weeks. Brian Hoyer started in his stead but they needed a backup for their backup. Matt Barkley was promoted from the practice roster and to make room for him they said laters bro to Paul Lasike, who was promptly added to that same practice squad in Barkley’s place. A QB/FB switcharooney.
What that meant was that Lasike was nowhere to be seen as the Bears were smashed by Dallas and then, in week four, finally got their first win of the season with a 17-14 victory over the Detroit Lions. Jordan Howard made his first start and bagged 111 rush yards while Brian Hoyer was great, 28/36 passing for 302 yards with 2 TDs and no picks.
Hoyer was even better the following week as he threw 397 yards against the Colts but he missed an open one to Alshon Jeffery on fourth down as the Bears tried to rally for the win. Down they went 29-23, though the good news was that Lasike had been reactivated for that one. Just the one play on offence and three on special teams (including one where he was flagged for running into the kicker in the third quarter, with the penalty declined). He’d be busier the following week in a 17-16 defeat against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 10 plays on offence including a one yard rush on 3rd & 1 in the second quarter, coming out of a Jacksonville timeout. There was debate among the refs as to whether he’d made the marker or not but after a quick chat they gave it to him without measuring.
And then he was waived and placed on the practice roster again.
The injuries kept coming for the Bears and performances weren’t much better. Hoyer broke his arm against the Green Bay Packers and that was his season over and done with. Jay Cutler had returned from his thumb injury but proceeded to play absolutely abysmally and in came Barkley as the starter who’d see out the final six games. He threw 14 interceptions in that time. Safe to say that their quarterback conundrum has only gotten weirder heading into next season – the one thing that seems certain is that Jay Cutler’s time in Chi-Town is no more.
JAY CUTLER – 81/137 PASS | 59.1% COMP | 1059 YDS | 4 TD | 5 INT | 78.1 RATE
BRIAN HOYER – 134/200 PASS | 67.0% COMP | 1445 YDS | 6 TD | 0 INT | 98.0 RATE
MATT BARKLEY – 129/216 PASS | 59.7% COMP | 1611 YDS | 8 TD | 14 INT | 68.3 RATE
They did manage to beat the tumbling Minnesota Vikings heading into their bye in week 9, though. That left them at 2-6 and they’d do even worse down the back end of things. Having said that, Jordan Howard’s emergence as a starter at RB was a major positive. He made 1313 yards on the ground with another 298 through the air in his rookie season, enough to get him a Pro Bowl nod in the NFC, picked as an alternate after David Johnson was injured.
Hey and coming out of the bye week a certain Paul Lasike was added to the active roster for the third time in 2016 and this time he was there to stay, remaining for the final eight games – even if he was inactive for the last two:
Jay Cutler had a horror game away to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week 10, turning the ball over four times on two picks and two fumbles. However he did complete one pass of note: a three yarder on 2nd & goal, seven yards out from the TB endzone. Cutler was really lucky not to throw a redzone pick the play before as his toss to Jeffery was way off the mark and actually hit the defensive back in the… well, in the back. It looped up and was so close to being snapped up by another defender. So on the next play Cutler fakes the pitch in the backfield and then, under some pressure, shovels it to Lasike. The former rugby player then did superb just to catch the ball and dive forward for a gain but on the same play lineman Kyle Long had to be stretchered off as Paulie landed on his ankle. It’d be the last play Long appeared on all season, marking number 13 of those 19 injured reserves.
On the very next play, Jay Cutler was sacked and fumbled the ball. The Bears lost 36-10.
Lasike had seven offensive snaps in that game, he’d have nine the next week against the Giants including a five yard run, the best of his career and the last touch of the ball he’d be given in 2016. Once again, it came on a 3rd & 1 situation in the second quarter, as did all three of his rushes. Definitely a pattern there. His catch was on a longer yardage situation but it was also deep in the redzone, which fits in with the fullback manifesto given out at the start of the season that they were looking for someone to help them on short yardage and goal-line sets.
Again, the Bears lost that game. Lasike was also with them as they lost a close one to Tennessee (seven offensive snaps & nine special teams snaps) before he got his first taste of victory in the league with a 26-6 triumph over that awful San Francisco 49ers team. It was the busiest Lasike has ever been, logging 23 total snaps. 12 were on offence and 11 on special teams. He even got a kick return in there for five yards, although it was a bit of an accident. Three dudes were there for the kick and none of them could get a pair of mitts on it. Instead Lasike gobbled it up and reeled in five yards to save a potential calamity.
Jordan Howard scored three touchdowns in that game, all from within the 10 yard line. Paul Lasike ran lead blocks on all three of them, the second was a real cruncher.
Curiously after 25 snaps in three games with the special teams unit, he wasn’t used again there and it was following that game that he saw his offensive involvement start to wind down too. Nine snaps in a 20-17 loss to Detroit and then only two in a 30-27 loss to Green Bay. He didn’t play in the final two defeats against Washington and Minnesota.
And that was that. Three rushes for 8 yards, one reception for 3 yards and a kickoff return for 5 yards. He appeared in 10 games and took the field for 110 total plays, 76 on offence and 34 on special teams.
The nature of this league means that despite making a bit of progress in 2016, he’ll have to prove himself all over again in the coming campaign. Fullbacks are not a position every team bothers with and Lasike lacks the height to be a tight end and the speed to be a running back. The Bears have invested in him thus far, never letting him go further than their practice squad so long as they could help it, but Lasike will be the first to tell you that everything can change overnight. He is under contract for one more season, so he’ll surely get his chance.
One thing in his favour is that John Fox appears pretty certain to stick around as head coach, even if the Bears have sacked their offensive line and assistant secondary coach, the former having at least a passing influence on Lasike’s work in the run game. Their offensive and defensive co-ordinators are both being retained as well. With a team coming off a season like that you’ve plenty more reasons why change could be afoot, granted there is one benefit and that’s the third overall pick in the next draft. You can go right on ahead and assume they’ll pick a quarterback if there’s an NFL-ready joker available (which is a doubt, to be fair – otherwise probably a playmaker in the secondary or the old standard: ‘best available’ pick).
Their draft history has been notoriously crap for a few years but if there was one encouraging note from the 2016 season, it’s that the Bears’ rookie group were pleasantly effective. Cody Whitehair looks to be a centre that can take them into the future while Jordan Howard has already been mentioned. Those are two crucial offensive positions filled right there and pass rushing linebacker Leonard Floyd, their 2016 first rounder, is a sure bet to start at OLB after his 7.0 sacks and 33 combined tackles in his debut crusade. It’s just the concussions that are a worry for him. Nick Kwiatkoski was solid at linebacker too.
One other offseason priority: find a way to keep Alshon Jeffrey around long term. Easily their best wide receiver and a man they can’t really afford to lose after keeping him around on the franchise tag in 2016. He’ll be costly… but with a slight proneness to injury and a four-game PED suspension last season, maybe not as costly as he might have been. He’s on record as saying the Bears can win the Super Bowl next season so that sounds like a positive start to negotiations. In fact, he’s on record as saying they will win the Super Bowl. Call him optimistic if nothing else…
Alshon Jeffrey: ‘’I guarantee you we’ll win the Super Bowl next year. We had a lot of injuries. I don’t think a team in the league had as much injuries as us.”
Alrighty then, mate. Here’s hoping you do and here’s hoping that Paul Lasike is around to help make it happen. Even if he isn’t, he’s already done things that no kiwi has ever done before and nobody can take that away from him.
Transaction History
September 20 – Released FB Paul Lasike
September 22 - Signed QB Matt Barkley from the practice squad and FB Paul Lasike to the practice squad
October 6 - Signed FB Paul Lasike from the practice roster
October 21 - Waived FB Paul Lasike (to make room for LB Pernell McPhee)
October 22 - Signed FB Paul Lasike to the practice squad
November 12 – Signed FB Paul Lasike