Chicago Bears Sign or Pass: Brandon Scherff
Brandon Scherff could cement the Chicago Bears offensive line. Is he worth a free agent signing?
Many fans want the Chicago Bears to fix their offensive line, but it will be tough for them to do much other than hope a lot of their current players take a step forward. Bobby Massie and Charles Leno are locked in for one more year, while James Daniels and Cody Whitehair are core building blocks that the team will hope takes a step forward after shuffling in 2019.
If the Chicago Bears are going to do anything this offseason, it will be fix right guard, where Kyle Long can be released, and Rashad Coward played most of the season learning on the fly.
Brandon Scherff is one of the top offensive linemen who may enter free agency. After five years in Washington, he is due for a big payday. Spotrac has his estimated value at a four-year, $50 million deal. Should the Chicago Bears be the team ready to hand it over?
Sign
They are not going to find a better guard to improve their line. Last season Scherff allowed one sack, nine hurries, and 10 overall pressures. To put that into perspective, Coward allowed one sack, three hits, and 21 hurries to combine for 25 overall pressures. That would be a big upgrade.
In cutting Kyle Long, they will save over $8 million in salary and that can go to Scherff. Scherff is still under 30 years old, and the Bears are in a win-now window. Going all-in on Mitch Trubisky means building the most talent around him and that starts with a splash like Scherff.
Pass
After starting every snap in the first two seasons of his career, he has missed time in each of the past three seasons. In 2017, it was a sprained MCL that he missed two games with. In 2018, a torn pec shut down his season after eight starts. 2019 saw 11 starts, but ankle, shoulder, and elbow injuries shut down his year early.
Next. Stay or Go: Danny Trevathan. dark
Scherff fought through the ankle injury, but his nine penalties while playing this year were a career-high, despite a lower than average snap rate. Are the injuries starting to catch up to Scherff? The last thing the Bears can do is give a player a payday only to see Coward thrown into the mix once again. There may not be dynamic names like Scherff, but there will be cheaper, and potentially more reliable names on the market as well.