Chicago Bears: Predicting the offensive line for 2021

The Chicago Bears need to change their offensive line next season

At the beginning of the season, the Chicago Bears‘ offensive line looked much improved. The first three weeks, they were running all over opposing defenses and giving Mitchell Trubisky/Nick Foles plenty of time to throw the ball.

After an injury to James Daniels, Bears’ fans were subjected to the horrible offensive line play we were used to seeing. That was in large part due to other injuries such as Cody Whitehair and Sam Mustipher, but it was also due to the Bears playing Rashaad Coward over Alex Bars and Mustipher. It took the Bears until after the bye week to make this shakeup, but since then, it’s worked wonders.

The interior offensive line of Whitehair at left guard, Mustipher at center, and Bars at right guard has been dominating the last few weeks. Running back David Montgomery has been dominant rushing for an average of 108.5 yards per game and five touchdowns in four games.

The only issue has been offensive tackle. Charles Leno hasn’t been horrible, but his current contract makes him not worth it due to the level he’s been playing at. With this improved scheme, Leno has looked better as well. Germain Ifedi has also played solid for Bobby Massie, but Ifedi is set to hit free agency at the end of the season.

It’s hard to say who will be where next season especially with Daniels returning, but I will take a shot at predicting the offensive line next season.

Left Tackle: First Round Draft Pick

It’s hard to predict who the Bears will exactly pick in the NFL draft, but my expectation is the Bears take a left tackle to be their left tackle of the future. It remains to be seen when they will pick or who will be available at their pick, but tackle is arguably their biggest need this offseason depending on who returns next season.

Of the guys they could draft, the tackle class is extremely deep with arguably eight offensive tackles that could be drafted in the first round. This gives the Bears a chance to snag not only a great offensive tackle early in the first round but also a developmental one in the later rounds to potentially be their right tackle of the future.