Chicago Bears: 5 Players who need to step up for the 2021 season
By Joseph Herff
This season is a vital one for head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace. Both are expected to be in the final years of their contracts and need to show the McCaskey family that they can bring the Chicago Bears to a winning season.
From the outside point of the view, Pace has built a nice team for his offensive-minded head coach adding plenty of new pieces that could elevate their lackluster offense. From franchise-hopeful Justin Fields to speedster Damiere Byrd, Pace revamped this offense while adding some nice depth pieces to this defense without losing too much.
Now, the Bears need some of their players to step up. This season will dictate which direction the Bears move. These five players will play a major part in this.
Chicago Bears need Germain Ifedi to step up.
Germain Ifedi was brought in the last offseason to be the Bears’ new right guard with Cody Whitehair sticking to center and James Daniels manning the left guard position. A multitude of injuries forced Ifedi to move back to his original position at right tackle with Whitehair moving to guard and Sam Mustipher coming it at center.
Ifedi played extremely well at right tackle, surprisingly. Ifedi was a major bust for the Seattle Seahawks as a first-round pick expected to man the tackle position for years protecting Hall-of-Fame quarterback Russell Wilson. He started at guard as a rookie then moved to tackle after that playing horribly for the Seahawks.
So, Bears’ offensive line coach Juan Castillo vouched for the first-round talent saying he would be best suited at guard. Ifedi looked solid to start the season, but with the injuries around him, everyone started to struggle. Once he moved to tackle, the unit as a whole improved.
Now, the Bears moved on from both Bobby Massie and Charles Leno leaving Ifedi and rookie Teven Jenkins to man the tackle spots. Ifedi really needs to step up as the veteran offensive tackle and needs to kill it if the offensive line has any hope of protecting either Andy Dalton or Fields.