One of the biggest stories from the Chicago Bears’ first preseason game under Ryan Poles was how much of an impact his first draft class had. Jaquan Brisker, Dominique Robinson. Braxton Jones, Trestan Ebner, and a bunch of UDFAs flashed in the game.
However, one rookie who did not see the same fate was rookie Doug Kramer. According to PFF, Kramer was the worst graded offensive player in the game, and the tape does back it up.
Kramer spent well too much time on the ground and looked overwhelmed in many situations. Below is one of the more disconcerting plays, as the Chicago Bears tried to set up a screen for Trestan Ebner. Watch Kramer, number 68.
He is slow out of his stance, he takes a false step to the wrong side and gets bumped by a defender which gets him off balance. Then, he is slow to pick up speed as he is expected to get out into space and take on a defender.
You can see number 47 take an angle and beat Kramer to the spot. It is clear that Kramer needed to get out in front of this play and pick up number 47 to set this free. He looks completely overwhelmed overall here and in this play looks too slow against explosive players.
The play below is another disappointing loss. Kramer is lined up against Taylor Stallworth below.
Stallworth is able to get his hands inside Kramer, and he holds him and shoves him aside as he rips through him. Kramer is off-balance and holds on at the last second. He probably would have gotten called for holding but Trevor Siemian got rid of the ball before Kramer latched onto Stallworth and rode him to the ground.
Still, Siemian threw a poor pass and did not set his feet, potentially seeing that he was about to be seized upon.
Fans are sick of Sam Mustipher and do not want to see him on the roster anymore. However, after OTAs and training camp the Bears elected to start Mustipher at center and pulled him when they pilled the rest of the starters.
Kramer played the entirety of the game from there. Considering the coaches who drafted Kramer are higher on Mustipher right now, and Kramer looked completely overwhelmed during his chances on an NFL field, it is clear that of the two, you could see Mustipher make the roster, and Kramer ends up on the practice squad.
He will need to play a lot better next week to avoid that being a likely scenario.