The great thing about the NFL is that there are so many positions that every year, there is almost always at least one player who has a breakout year on every team, no matter how good or bad the team is. This is one part in a 32 part segment detailing one potential breakout player for the 2012 NFL season on each NFL team. For the Chicago Bears, that player is defensive tackle Henry Melton.
Henry Melton played very well in a rotational role last season, playing 639 snaps, primarily pass rush snaps (437), and recording 7 sacks, 9 quarterback hits, and 23 quarterback pressures, good for a very impressive 8.9% rate. At his position, he ranked 3rd in sacks, 2nd in quarterback hits, and 7th in quarterback pressures, despite ranking 13th in pass rush snaps. His pass rush productivity rate was 4th in the league. He also ranked 17th overall on ProFootballFocus at his position, despite playing only the 23rd most snaps.
Heading into 2012, the 2009 4th round pick is expected to get a larger role in his 4th year in the league, with key rotational players Amobi Okoye and Anthony Adams gone. Those two combined to play 910 snaps last year. 2011 2nd round rookie Stephen Paea will help take some of those vacated snaps, but Melton will almost definitely get more snaps this season, particularly on run downs, where he was also above average last season with a run stop percentage of 8.0%, which would have ranked 13th in the league had he had enough run snaps played to qualify. Already the team leader in snaps played among defensive tackles in 2011, Melton could play 700-800 snaps in 2012 and find himself making his first Pro-Bowl.
If you’re interested in doing a fantasy football league with me, here’s the link (no draft date set yet, currently standard, with the option to become PPR with group vote). http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/football/commissioner/Registration/Private.aspx?league=55086&password=FanSpot2
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