3 Best moves the Chicago Bears made this offseason

No. 2 – Chicago Bears trade up in the second round for Teven Jenkins

The offensive line has been ignored for far too long. Prior to the 2021 NFL Draft, Ryan Pace had only drafted three offensive tackles ever: Jordan Morgan (Round 5, 2017), Tayo Fabuluje (Round 6, 2015), and Arlington Hambright (Round 7, 2020). He then ended that run of poor decision-making by trading up in the second round to get Teven Jenkins out of Oklahoma State.

Prior to the draft, I had Jenkins slotted as one of my sleeper offensive tackles as he was constantly going in the middle of the third round of NFL mock drafts. Jenkins is a mauler of a right tackle who has underrated pass-blocking abilities as well. Eventually, Jenkins shot up draft boards and many mocks ended up having the Bears taking him 20th overall.

Pace saw how the board was falling, and he took his shot. He created a run on offensive tackle by trading up from 52nd overall to 39th overall and selecting Jenkins. Shortly after, Liam Eichenberg, Walker Little, and Jackson Carman all were taken off the board. Not even Samuel Cosmi was expected to fall to 52nd overall as he went 51st to the Washington Football Team.

This selection allowed Pace to free up even more cap space and move on from Charles Leno after all of these years. The Bears plan is to slot Jenkins in at left tackle and have Germain Ifedi, who is replacing Bobby Massie, will start at right tackle. Jenkins will struggle early, that is a given as he was strictly a right tackle in college and he is a rookie, but he could easily be their tackle of the future.