Bears Tackles Are Worse Than You Think
Bears offensive tackles J’Marcus Webb and Frank Omiyale help up Jay Cutler (Photo courtesy of Andrew Nelles)
It’s no big surprise that the Chicago Bears offensive tackles were brutal last year. Thanks to the fine folks at Pro Football Focus, we have a way to quantify their badness besides percentage of black and blue marks covering Jay Cutler’s body.
The formula for pass blocking efficiency is pretty simple, they add sacks + 75% of hurries and QB hits and divide that all by the number of snaps in pass protection and multiply by 100 just because they can. The formula looks a little something like this to you math geeks like me out there:
((Sacks + (0.75 * Hits) + (0.75 * Hurries)) / Pass Pro Snaps) * 100
The best in the business is Miami Dolphins left tackle Jake Long, with a PBE (that’s Pass Blocking Efficiency) of 2.71. Like golf, the lower your score the better. On the flipside, the worst left tackle was San Diego’s Brandon Dombrowski with a PBE of 10.61. In fairness, he only had about 212 snaps worth of pass protection action, so the numbers are a little skewed.
We know one left tackle with plenty of pass protection snap – Frank Omiyale. Frankie O had 665 snaps in pass protection and scored a PBE of 7.18, good for fourth worst among all left tackles in the NFL.
For you J’Marcus Webb fans who are ready to rush the rookie over to the left side, Webb ranked dead last among right tackles with a PBE of 9.18 in 531 opportunities. How do the Bears fix this situation? Here are a few ideas:
- Get Gabe Carimi into the starting lineup as quickly as possible. For what it’s worth, I think you leave Webb on the right side and put the Bear Jew on the left side with Frank Omiyale playing left out.
- Go out and sign another tackle whenever Free Agency opens up. If you throw enough crap at the wall, some of it is bound to stick.
- Re-consider the offensive philosophy, something that Mike Martz and Mike Tice did during the BYE week. The line is chalked full of road graders, so load them up and run the damn ball.
- Introduce Brandon Manumaleuna to a treadmill. Am I the only one who’s scared what he’s been up to during the lockout without any adult supervision, otherwise known as OTA’s? The Bears brought him in last year to be like another tackle in Mike Martz’s offense. He fit in in that he stunk like the rest of our tackles. Fix him or cut him loose!
What are your ideas to fix the Bears’ offensive tackle problem? Post them in the Comments.