It's official: the Bears have their first crisis of the season. And while Week 2 seems a little bit early for this level of heightened panic, at least it's not Week 1? I dunno.
In case watching Caleb Williams get sacked seven times on Sunday Night Football didn't convince you enough, the Bears have a real offensive line problem on their hands. Their line looked as bad as it's been in years, in turn making the Bears' offense way too one-dimensional and dooming Caleb Williams to a night of deep, calming breaths on the bench in between drives. I didn't check Google analytics on Sunday, but I'd be curious how the search trends for 'oh god not again' looked that night.
No one had a good game, but the interior linemen looked particularly rough. Coleman Shelton hasn't been anywhere close to as advertised yet, and no one's drawn more anger out of Bears fans this year than Nate Davis. It sure looks like Ryan Poles dropped the ball on improving the line this past offseason, and without any real help on the way – unless you're especially bullish on rookie 3rd round pick Kiran Amegadjie – the Bears are going to have to work with what they've got. It's not great!
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Of course, it doesn't help that former Bears' linemen are killing it elsewhere right now. Things are so bad right now that fans are legitmately sad that *Lucas Patrick* isn't around anymore, and they're right!
Letting Lucas Patrick leave looks like a bad move from Ryan Poles
The highest-graded Saints in Week 2 vs the Cowboys:
— PFF NO Saints (@PFF_Saints) September 16, 2024
🥇 Lucas Patrick - 97.2
🥈 Erik McCoy - 92.2
🥉 Demario Davis - 91.4
🏅 Chris Olave - 91.0
🏅 Derek Carr - 91.0 pic.twitter.com/IgQ4p8B99H
I had to double check that this was, in fact, the same Lucas Patrick that the worst season of his career with the Bears last year – the same Lucas Patrick that, when you google his name, the first result is a Reddit thread titled, 'Is Lucas Patrick Actually Any Good?' But it is. It's the same Lucas Patrick.
I actually like PFF and think their grades are useful, but for the sake of this exercise, I'm going to lean into the "PFF Has No Idea What They're Talking About" schtick, because otherwise I think I'd lose my mind. Lucas Patrick is good now?! Because he's playing for an offensive coordinator that the Bears had no interest in hiring? Wonderful news all around. Tune in next week when, like, Allen Robinson has the best game of his life.