All Downhill from Here: Nick Kwiatkoski's development into every-down LB couldn't come at better time

Nick Kwiatkoski | Jeff Driskel © Mike Dinovo | 2019 Nov 10With their first of three fourth-round draft picks in 2016, the Bears selected a rugged downhill linebacker from West Virginia named Nick Kwiatkoski. He arrived in Chicago less than six weeks after plug-and-play free-agent signees Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman, who’d just received contracts worth a combined $40-plus million to transform one of the league’s worst position groups for a franchise with the NFL’s longest LB tradition.

Kwiatkoski, then, clearly would have to make his first mark on special teams. Unfortunately, he’d face another early obstacle, a hamstring injury wiping out the entirety of his first NFL training camp.…