The Chicago Bears offensive line depression should end in 2019.
The Chicago Bears drafted two offensive linemen in the seventh round of the 2020 NFL draft. Fans are still at the team’s throat over what is going to happen on the offensive line. But is the Chicago Bears offensive line that bad?
No NFL team will be perfect. Football teams try to find a vision that is going to separate themselves from other organizations. The 1985 Chicago Bears team won a Super Bowl with the concept of historical defense and running the ball. The Kanas City Chiefs won this last year with an explosive offense that can score 21 points in under five minutes.
The Chicago Bears finished the season as the 25th ranked offense, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). The average time to pressure was an awful 2.37 seconds. That pressure time ranked 29th in the league.
The Chicago Bears’ vision is not to ground and pound and maul their opponents with a ferocious run and pass blocking setup. That is the Tennesse Titans’ game plan. Matt Nagy has stressed how he wants intelligent and agile blockers that follow their assignments correctly to open up running lanes. James Daniels switched to left guard after it was found that he was making incorrect blocking assignment calls and boosted himself to a 73.9 PFF grade.
Before the season started, PFF had projected the Chicago Bears to be the ninth-best offensive line in the NFL. That was with the expected line-up being Charles Leno Jr, Cody Whitehair, James Daniels, Kyle Long, and Bobbie Massie.
The Chicago Bears finished with Charles Leno Jr, Cody Whitehair, James Daniels, Rashaad Coward, Cornelius Lucas. Coward was supposed to be training to play right tackle but hasn’t been able to focus solely on one position since his switch from the defensive side of the ball.
The plus side is that Ryan Pace’s vision has gotten the Chicago Bears offensive line to be better than it has in the past compared to the down year in 2019. In the 2017 and 2018 seasons, the Chicago Bears offensive line ranked 11th according to PFF. James Daniels he the lowest grade during his rookie season with a 62.3 overall grade. The Chicago Bears preach offensive line continuity.
The Bears got much younger on the offensive line with depth and competition from their seventh-round draft picks, undrafted free agent additions, and free agency with guys like Germain Ifedi and Jason Spriggs. Ifedi and Spriggs were both drafted in the top 50 players of their respective drafts. They are also both 25 years old, so they can still be molded to play much better with their current change of scenery. The competition this summer should be very intense in the trenches at Halas Hall.