5 things to know about Chicago Bears new OL Alex Leatherwood

Sep 19, 2021; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt (90) rushes the line of scrimmage as Las Vegas Raiders offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood (70) blocks during the second quarter at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

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3. Alex Leatherwood is better as a zone blocker

When you get released after your first NFL season, it had to be a disaster. Even with new coaching staff, things had to go downhill quickly to see a team give up like that. When you look into the advanced stats of Leatherwood it is easy to see why they let him go.

He was poor in pass protection, and ranked 81st overall as a run blocker, per PFF. One thing to note is that he was much more efficient as a zone blocker than as a gap blocker.

In the zone, he ranked just 44th overall in run block grade, while he ranked 110th as a gap blocker. He only spent 28% of his snaps running gap plays, but that was still enough to drag his overall run blocking grade down.

One thing that is worth taking away from this is that the Patriots and Josh McDaniels have often run a gap scheme. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears are going all-in on an outside zone scheme. If the team can take away some of his poor snaps in the gap, and replace them with improved zone snaps perhaps they could get the best out of him.

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