The Chicago Bears are rarely in position when they are favored, but that is the case when they host the Carolina Panthers for Thursday Night Football. The Bears get a team with a worse record, and a win does not hurt draft position since they have the Panthers pick. The Bears need to win this game and they need to see the best from the following players.
4. The Chicago Bears could see the best out of rookie tackle Darnell Wright
The Chicago Bears rookie tackle has not had his bye week and maybe getting to the point where he starts to wear down from the NFL season. However, he also may be in a spot to show exactly how good he has been on Thursday. Nobody is saying that Wright is Lane Johnson yet, but he has helped, and for a rookie, he has played well. He also has had stiff competition.
He saw Rashan Gary at times in week one and Shaq Barrett in week two. Chirs Jones moved to the edge at times in week three, and he saw George Karlaftis otherwise. Montez Sweat, Danielle Hunter, Maxx Crosby, Joey Bosa, and Cameron Jordan joined the list of primary matchups that Wright has played against this past month. We thought that Brian Burns would be on the list, but a concussion may have him out for this game. That would leave Wright against Amare Barno, a former sixth-round pick from Virginia Tech. Barno has seven pressures in his first two seasons and only has 63 pass rush attempts.
When you look at who Wright has faced, he is a lot more battle-tested than he was earlier in the year. He may be worn down, but he gets his easiest matchup of the year by far and should hold things down.