4 National offensive linemen the Chicago Bears must watch at Senior Bowl
Chicago Bears Senior Bowl Scouting: Dawand Jones, OT – Ohio State
The one player I am very interested in this week despite not fitting the profile that Ryan Poles seems to like for his offensive linemen is Dawand Jones. Everyone is excited about Paris Johnson, Jr., but Dawand Jones should be on plenty of teams’ radars.
Jones is a massive human being at 6’8″ and over 360 pounds. He has extremely long arms too at 36-1/8″ long. He is a better run blocker than a pass blocker but is good enough at both to be selected in the second round. Should Ryan Poles be okay with selecting a bigger lineman than he has in the past, then he will have to hope Jones falls down far enough since the only second-round pick the Chicago Bears own in the 2023 NFL Draft is the one they received from the Baltimore Ravens. I have Jones with a mid-to-late second-round grade, but again, he might not fit the mold Poles likes for his linemen.
The National Team’s first practice is actually over already, but I’m not going to focus on grading practices at this point. It makes sense to give these guys all three practices before truly identifying how well they did. That said, Jones had a solid day going up against defensive lineman Keion White and others. He still needs to do a better job setting his feet at times. Too often he relies on his arms and upper body, causing him to get out of position and lose his balance. With the right coaching, he has the potential to become a great tackle in the NFL.