Chicago Bears: Does Ryan Pace correctly value offensive linemen?

Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears do care about fixing the offensive line.

The Chicago Bears under Ryan Pace have drafted a total of seven offensive linemen since he has been in office. That is an average of a little over one offensive lineman per draft. That is around the same standard of offensive linemen the Chicago Bears have drafted over the previous 10 years before Ryan Pace.

That could spell trouble in the future but could also provide success. The Chicago Bears between 2004 and 2014 had seven seasons in which they won eight games or more. So would more offensive line had helped gain more wins? The issue with drafting more offensive linemen is you, sacrifice playmakers.

The Chicago Bears added two offensive linemen late in the draft in round seven. With back to back selections, the Bears added Arlington Hambright and Lachavious Simmons. Hambright played left tackle at Oklahoma State and Colorado University. Ryan Pace believes his build is better suited to play guard. Simmons is considered to play tackle or guard at the professional level but played left guard at Tennessee State University.

The concern could be that while they are prospects, they primarily played on the left side of the line. With two rookie guards being drafted that played on the left side of the line, that could mean Alex Bars might compete on the right side a bit more.

The lack of offensive linemen being drafted by Ryan Pace might not just be his vision. It might also be coach Matt Nagy’s vision as well. The Kansas City Chiefs are a good example to use since the coach hails from that team. There Super Bowl roster consisted of Mitchell Schwartz, Andrew Wylie, Austin Reiter, Eric Fisher, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.

Fisher has been the only consistent top draft pick player the Chiefs have made on the offensive line. Austin Reiter was a seventh-round pick by Washington in 2015. Wylie was undrafted in 2017 by Indianapolis and released to the practice squad before bouncing on multiple teams practice squads before hitting the practice squad on Kansas City. He worked his way to the starting role in 2018.

Schwartz was the 37th overall selection by Cleveland and was not retained after his rookie contract was up. Kansas City offered up a mega-deal in free agency for him. Duvernay-Tardif was a sixth-round selection in 2014 and earned his way to the starting rotation.

Kansas City went in with the mindset of having good tackles and building the interior up while Chicago has been focusing on the interior while working its way out. In all fairness, the Chicago Bears had thought Charles Leno had finally found his groove. The question remains, does Ryans Pace value offensive line?

To me, the answer is yes. Pace has just missed a couple of times on Tayo Fabuluje and Bobby Massie. With the additions of the two seventh-round draft selections, the undrafted free agents, and  Germain Ifedi and the Chicago Bears should find themselves in a better situation than reaching on a singular player in round two or five. Swing for the fence or take a lot of base hits? The base hit route is now the Chicago Bears offseason plan.