Juan Castillo putting his hands on first draft class
Chicago Bears offensive line coach Juan Castillo just took on a couple of projects. We will see what he can do.
Many Chicago Bears fans wanted to add to an offensive line that lacked depth. After moving on from Harry Hiestand, the team brought in Juan Castillo, a coach very familiar with Matt Nagy. This was the first shakeup and a sign that the line did not do enough.
However, the team did not make big moves to the line. They brought in Germain Ifedi and drafted Arlington Hambright and Lachavious Simmons late in the seventh round.
These are not groundbreaking moves. Ifedi is very likely to start at guard, but that is just a projection at this point. The other two are complete projects.
This makes the most significant move the hiring of Juan Castillo. He needs to find a way to make the shift for Ifedi easy and needs to find a way to turn these two into something. He clearly had a say in these two going back to back late in his first draft class.
The Bears gave him his first pieces to work with, and see what he can mold.
When we reviewed Juan Castillo and his career offensive line work, he did not have a long list of success from the late rounds. A theme of his career was that the Eagles invested first-round picks on the line, and due to consistency, he was able to churn out consistent lines.
It is fair that he is bringing back four starters, which is a massive help in Chicago.
Jeremy Bridges, Trey Darilek, Adrian Clarke, Scott Young, Calvin Armstrong is the list of his most successful picks in the late rounds.
He got years of play out of Hank Fraley, and Jamaal Jackson as UDFAs starting at center. So, he has two successes at center, and a bunch of big-name draft picks to his name. What can he do with two tackles who were much lower on many boards than his own?
Next. Is Darnell Mooney the perfect Taylor Gabriel replacement. dark
Hambright appears to have upside as a tackle and could be more ready to get on an NFL field. Simmons moves fluidly but is a mess technically, and coming from a small school, and you wonder if he would have been drafted otherwise.
The last two picks of this draft will say a lot about Juan Castillo. We will see if he can find success on the line in 2020.