On Monday, the NFL suspended Chicago Bears defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff for the first three games of the regular season for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Ratliff's suspension is related to an earlier DWI charge to which Ratliff pleaded guilty.
Ratliff's suspension is bad news for the Bears, who face a daunting three-game stretch to open up the season. The Bears' first three opponents -- the Packers, Cardinals and Seahawks -- were all playoff teams in 2014. Ratliff won't appeal the suspension, which means that he's without a doubt missing those games.
The suspension is bad news because Ratliff might just be the best defensive lineman on the team. In 11 games last season, Ratliff racked up 6.5 sacks. Earlier this month, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio highlighted Ratliff as the only sure starter on the Bears' defensive line.
"Right now, we have one really good player in Jay Ratliff," Fangio said via ESPN. "The other guys are fighting for that second, third, fourth, fifth and potentially sixth spot."
But Ratliff is also in his mid-30s and doesn't have much value in the long-term for the Bears, who are in the middle of a rebuild of sorts. In his place, the Bears will be forced to rely on a trio of younger, unproven players. Eddie Goldman, Ego Ferguson and Will Sutton were all drafted by the Bears in the past two seasons and they'll be expected to pick up the slack, as Fangio tries to revamp a defense that faltered under former defensive coordinator Mel Tucker.
The most notable and important of those names is Goldman, who was selected by the Bears in the second round this past May and was slated to be the No. 2 nose tackle behind Ratliff. Goldman will be the man directly responsible for replacing Ratliff.
Though he'll now be forced to play a larger role than expected on Sundays this fall, Goldman was always supposed to see the field in the regular season. On Saturday against the Colts, Goldman rotated in with the starters and played into the fourth quarter.
As for second-year player Will Sutton, he's coming off a season that saw him on the field for over 450 snaps. But when Fangio was hired, questions regarding Sutton's future with the Bears were immediately raised, as he doesn't necessarily fit in with a 3-4 scheme. A defensive tackle best utilized on a four-man line, Sutton will be forced to play as a defensive end in the new scheme. But Sutton has been impressive so far this preseason and in practice, according to reporters who regularly attend Bears' practices. Sutton could also rotate in at nose tackle.
As for Ego Ferguson, like Sutton, he's also facing an awkward transition, having been drafted by the previous Bears regime to play as a defensive tackle in a 4-3 scheme. Ferguson slimmed down this offseason as he also prepares for a new role as more of a defensive end type of player.
Earlier this month, Ferguson spoke about the transition to the new scheme.
"Going from a 4-3 to 3-4, the biggest difference is just understanding that you're playing two gaps instead of one gap and controlling your gap first and being able to fall back on the ball," he said via ESPN. "I feel like people sometimes think a 3-4 is a sit-back defense, but you can get off the ball a little bit. You've just got to be able to control your gap. As long as you can control your gap, you can get off the ball."
Not to mention, this isn't the same Bears defense from a year ago.
If there's a common theme that relates to the three players highlighted earlier, it's that they're all unproven and young. They also have potential to form the core of the Bears defensive line in the years to come.
Still, the Packers, Cardinals, and Seahawks should be pleased, as they'll now face a Ratliff-less team. And the Bears should be worried about their season going down in flames in the first three weeks of the season. But at the very least, the Bears will have a better idea of what they have in Goldman and his young counterparts by the time Ratliff returns. For a team in the middle of a rebuild, that's not the worst scenario.