Chicago Bears: 5 Players who must put up or shut up in Week 1

If Charles Leno plays as he did in 2019, the Chicago Bears are in trouble

The Chicago Bears offensive line was not good in 2019. Switching Cody Whitehair and James Daniels to start the season turned out to be a failure. Daniels could not handle the line calls or blocking assignments and the entire offense suffered. Switching them back later in the season helped, but it was not a complete fix.

The tackles were awful and Charles Leno had his worst season in a Chicago Bears uniform. As someone who does not hate on Ryan Pace, I do struggle with the fact he does not seem to want to invest money into his offensive line. The thing is, Leno is not a bad left tackle. He had a bad season, but he has been at average or slightly above average as a left tackle throughout his career.

In 2019, Leno allowed pass rushers to get to the quarterback five times. This was not his biggest problem though. He had six holding penalties on top of it. Adding in his other penalties (12 total), Leno not only negated plays but moved the Chicago Bears back 99 yards throughout the season. Nothing kills an offense like a poorly timed offensive penalty.

Just like others on offense, could it be that Leno just lost focus? Was it the fact he was becoming a father and starting a life outside of football that was distracting to him? These are all big changes for anyone let alone a football player. Now those things are behind him though and these cannot be excuses for 2020. Leno must find a way to return to his prior form. He will need to have a strong game against Trey Flowers, one of the better defensive ends in the game.