Predicting Chicago Bears' Stat Leaders in 2017

Chicago Bears fans aren't strangers to new faces leading the statistical leaderboard on a yearly basis now.

The Jay Cutler era bled into last year's...Matt Barkley anomaly. Matt Forte led right into Jordan Howard. Brandon Marshall had a passing-of-the-torch moment with Alshon Jeffery before Cameron Meredith took the reins one year ago.

Residing deep in the throes of a significant rebuild breeds inconsistency in such areas. Contending teams don't generally have the same problem—seeing the same boring faces leading in stats is a good thing for most franchises.

The good news? Bears fans will notice the same young faces continuing to pop up in certain areas in 2017, along with a few new ones. It's a testament to a rebuild headed in the right direction as the roster surrounding these strong statistical producers continues to improve.

Below, let's project who will pave the way for the Bears from a statistical standpoint in 2017.

Passing

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Mike Glennon: 328-of-560, 3,985 yards, 28 touchdowns, 14 interceptions 

It's nice to not see Barkley or Brian Hoyer up there, right?

Bears general manager Ryan Pace went out of his way this offseason to doubly address the most important position of all. He added a veteran with upside in Mike Glennon and then moved up in the draft to make sure he got North Carolina's Mitchell Trubisky.

This was all part of the plan, believe it or not. For those who missed it, MMQB.com's Emily Kaplan had a critical read after the draft that explains something simple—Pace wanted Trubisky all along.

Meaning, Trubisky is the franchise quarterback of the future and will have a chance to compete for the starting gig, but the job will mostly go to Glennon.

And that's not such a bad thing. Glennon is a capable passer who drowned in a miserable situation to start his career. He has some decent weapons around him now and a strong offensive line, so he'll turn a few heads with the numbers he'll produce.

Unlike last year, where Bears quarterbacks tallied big numbers in garbage time, Glennon will get his over meaningful snaps.

Rushing

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Jordan Howard: 265 carries, 1,445 yards, eight touchdowns

Tarik Cohen: 55 carries, 320 yards, 33 receptions, 310 yards, four touchdowns

Jeremy Langford: 30 carries, 156 yards

No surprises here—which is a good thing, remember?

Howard had a breakout rookie year a season ago, in large part because he's patient and talented, but also because he gets to run behind one of the league's best interior offensive lines.

As a complementary piece to what should be an improved passing attack this year, Howard should be more effective on the ground. This won't lead to more carries, though, as keeping him fresh and keeping him in the usual Forte range of attempts seems to be the goal.

Howard saw 50 targets in the passing game last year. Some of those were panicky checkdowns by iffy signal-callers, but a chunk of those should go to new rookie back Tarik "Big Daddy" Cohen. The projections above call for him to see more snaps than guys like Jeremy Langford and Ka'Deem Carey.

Look for Cohen to act as the explosive complement to Howard's workhorse role.

Receiving

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Cameron Meredith: 75 catches, 1,100 yards, five touchdowns

Kendall Wright: 53 catches, 855 yards, six touchdowns

Kevin White: 50 catches, 645 yards, three touchdowns

Adam Shaheen: 45 catches, 455 yards, five touchdowns

Markus Wheaton: 25 catches, 245 yards, three touchdowns

The above might be the hardest to project for the Bears going into the 2017 season.

Other than Meredith, of course. He had a breakout year a season ago, catching 66 passes for 888 yards and four touchdowns while 13 of his catches—a team high—went for 20 or more yards.

Many expect a bigger year from Meredith in 2017, which might be the case. But even if his ceiling is a strong No. 2 wideout, it's an important chip for the Bears to have moving forward around a young quarterback.

The wild card here is Kevin White. He missed his entire rookie year and only played in a handful of games last year. He's incredibly talented, which he should be as a top-10 pick, but it's hard to confidently project that his body will hold up for an entire 16-game slate.

Not only that, reading up on a quote from Bears wideout coach Zach Azzanni, captured by Kevin Fishbain of the Northwest Herald, reveals the coaching staff feel they have to start from scratch with White.

The injury angle is the same thing with veteran tight end Zach Miller. Instead, look for free-agent add Dion Sims to get a healthy dose of targets and for a coaching staff clearly high on rookie Adam Shaheen to get him on the field and developing as soon as possible.

On paper, Chicago has a wealth of respectable targets needing consistent quarterback play to be effective. They should have it with the veteran Glennon, but a spread-it-out attack won't lead to major breakout numbers for any one guy this year.

Tackles

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Jerrell Freeman: 105 total tackles

Danny Trevathan: 75 total tackles

Nick Kwiatkoski: 55 total tackles

Quintin Demps: 65 total tackles

Here's another spot where consistency is a budding trend.

Pace went out of his way to rebuild the linebacking corps over the past two years and has Jerrell Freeman and Danny Trevathan leading the way. The former was a monster last year with 110 total tackles despite missing four games, so he'll lead the way again.

More interesting is what comes after Freeman. Trevathan should, but like last year he might see the totals split with Nick Kwiatkoski thanks to injury.

Based on a quote from defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, Trevathan might not be ready to go for camp thanks to injury.

"That's in question, whether he’ll be ready at that point," Fangio said, according to the Chicago Sun Times' Patrick Finley.

Safety Harold Jones-Quartey ranked second on the team in tackles last year and fellow safety Adrian Amos landed fourth. Part of this was scheme, part of it was a miserable secondary putting an end to mistakes. Either way, expect to see free-agent add Quintin Demps near the top of the list.

Sacks

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Leonard Floyd: 14.5 sacks

Akiem Hicks: 8.5 sacks

Pernell McPhee: 7.5 sacks

Willie Young: 6.5 sacks

It's time for Leonard Floyd's breakout year.

As a rookie, he grabbed seven sacks over 12 games. The coaching staff eased him into things and he wound up having some spotty injury issues, including a concussion, or he probably would've had a double-digit sack season during his debut campaign.

There's no time like the present, though. Floyd should be a little heavier this year after a full 365 days with a professional training staff. He should have an improved technique and game sense as a coverage player, too.

Floyd will make his money as a pass-rusher, though. If the rest of the front is healthy, he'll capitalize on one-on-ones and terrorize quarterbacks.

Speaking of the rest of the front, keep an eye on Akiem Hicks. He had the best season of his career a year ago in Fangio's scheme, tallying seven sacks. A repeat performance with everyone healthy around him wouldn't come as much of a shock.

Thanks to injuries, rotational rusher (and criminally underrated) Willie Young had 7.5 sacks last year. If Pernell McPhee stays healthy, they'll eat into each other's stat lines, but a healthy rotation is one of the best things an NFL team can have.

On paper, the Bears do.

Pass Defense

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Prince Amukamara: Seven passes defensed, three interceptions

Marcus Cooper: six passes defensed, two interceptions

Cre'Von LeBlanc: seven passes defensed, three interceptions

Quintin Demps: three passes defensed, four interceptions

Eddie Jackson: two passes defensed, one interception

This is where Bears fans should be thrilled to see new face after new face.

On paper, Prince Amukamara and Marcus Cooper, added via free agency, should represent an improvement for the Bears in pass coverage. Per Pro Football Focus, the former tallied five passes defensed last year, the latter six. Keep in mind encouraging slot corner Cre'Von LeBlanc had eight.

Perhaps more interesting is safety. The aforementioned Demps defensed two but picked off six passes. Eddie Jackson seems to have a serious shot at starting next to him as a rookie and one of his most-talked about attributes is his range in coverage, so his putting up respectable numbers there seems a given if he wins out.

This is another tough spot to project, though. Random names like Kyle Fuller and Deiondre' Hall will even compete for snaps at safety and Fangio will do whatever it takes to put the best players on the field.

This approach might lead to some odd final stats, but it'll be an improvement on a year ago—which is the general, respectable theme of the 2017 Bears as a whole.

All contract information courtesy of Spotrac unless otherwise specified. Stats courtesy of NFL.com. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.