Should the Chicago Bears bring back their starting guard Bryan Witzmann or let him walk via free agency?
Last year the Chicago Bears started their season with Kyle Long and Eric Kush as their starting guards. Most of the season saw James Daniels next to Bryan Witzmann. While Daniels was a pleasant surprise, Witzmann was clearly not expected to be an impact player for the Bears this season.
The team signed him after Kyle Long went down and wound up starting seven games for the Bears. Was his play enough to bring back, or should the Bears just cut ties altogether?
Keep
It is not like Kyle Long is going to come back without health concerns. In fact, he is just another year older and has some calling to cut ties with him as well.
With limited depth at the position, the least they could do is bring back Witzmann on the cheap to maintain any sort of continuity. Witzmann is not going to have a strong market. He was cut by the Chiefs is brought in due to his connection to Matt Nagy. He is not going to start in many other places, and only Kansas City and Philadelphia will run a similar offense. He will not cost much and wants to come back, even if that means being depth. Why not?
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Pass
Witzmann was rough this season. It has been something we have highlighted throughout the season. Here is his first start review. He was not the cause of Jordan Howard snuggling, but he certainly was not helping. This was his worst season as a run blocker and that is from a player who has bounced around the NFL pretty much every season since 2014.
When Eric Kush is on the field they average 4.42 yards per carry. With Kyle Long they up to 4.78 yards per carry. When Bryan Witzmann is playing the Bears average 3.6 yards per carry.
Yes, continuity matters. Still, he was brought in off of the street and did not show that he was picking things up. It feels as though the Bears could find younger, cheaper and more talented players for depth.