Chicago Bears try to fatten up first rounder Leonard Floyd
By JK Long
Floyd on a team sponsored weight gaining mission
The Chicago Bears knew exactly what they were getting when they traded up to draft Leonard Floyd in the first round of April’s NFL draft. He is very quick, very strong and very athletic. He is also very skinny.
So skinny in fact that NFL.com, while praising him for a “unique combination of length and athleticism,” also said this about Floyd: “All thin everything. Gangly frame produces marginal play strength. Built like a wide receiver and needs to live in a team cafeteria and weight room…Floyd is painfully thin and will struggle to matchup with the strength of NFL players…one of the most polarizing conversations in the entire draft.”
So the Bears had a plan for Floyd when arrived at mini-camp this week – they handed him a playbook, a uniform and a nutrition plan so the 2015 Butkus Award finalist from Georgia can gain some weight to face the rigors of an NFL season.
Designed by the team’s nutritionist, Floyds’ meal plans include protein shakes, weight bars and just about anything else “as long as I eat a lot of it,” he quipped.
Bears Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and General Manager Ryan Pace have said they want Floyd to play somewhere in 230 to 240 pound range. In his NFL.com draft profile, Floyd was listed as 6 ft 6 in., 244 pounds. But Floyd has said in the past that he has trouble keeping weight on, so part of his new regimen will be to eat every two or three hours. He has even set multiple alarms on his phone to remind him to eat that often.
Pace did say in April that he doesn’t want Floyd to gain too much weight and slow him down, which would change his whole dynamic and minimize the speed the Bears drafted him for in the first place. Floyd will begin his NFL journey on September 11th, when the Bears open the season at the Houston Texans.
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