The Chicago Bears traded for offensive lineman Dan Feeney in a move that speaks to how desperate the team is on the offensive line. Cody Whitehair appears to be having trouble snapping, Lucas Patrick is struggling to stay healthy, and Doug Kramer is heading to the IR, as is Teven Jenkins.
You can certainly understand why the team made the move, and he may even be starting week one. So, what should fans know about him at this point?
3. Dan Feeney brings versatility the Chicago Bears need
Dan Feeney was once a third-round pick of the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2017 NFL draft. He has 4,160 snaps on offense in his NFL career. He has 64 career starts but 48 of them were from 2018 through 2020. In the past two years, he has just seven starts.
However, over that time, it has been able to show versatility. He played primarily left guard with the Chargers but shifted to center in 2020 when the team needed him. In 2021, he played a little center and left guard, but in 2022, he played 103 snaps at right guard, the most in his career.
Overall, he has 2,596 snaps at left guard, 1,412 snaps at center, and 125 snaps at right guard. He has 185 right guard snaps in the preseason, including 44 snaps at right guard this summer. So, if they needed him to step in for Teven Jenkins, he certainly could. However, he also has 286 snaps at center and 52 snaps in the past two preseasons at center.
He has mostly been a center since the 2020 season when he got his chance, and he has stuck in the role. With Whitehair, Patrick and Kramer all having issues at center you can imagine that they traded him to fill this hole, although the missed practice of Nate Davis and IR stint for Teven Jenkins tells us he could be used anywhere.
2. Dan Feeney can play zone and man as a blocker
One good note about Dan Feeney is that he can play both zone and man blocking. For his career, Feeney has 645 snaps in zone, and then 726 as a power blocker. That is a 47% zone-blocking rate. The Chicago Bears ran zone 58% of the time, so they may be looking for him to be a more prominent zone blocker.
The good news is that he has played much more zone the past couple of years. Since 2020, when he primarily started to play center, he has played 60% of his snaps as a zone blocker. This is another reason why this is a fit. He can come into the zone blocking scheme, and not only knows how to run it, he knows how to make the calls as the center.
There are not a lot of centers available who can pull that off. It is clear that the Chicago Bears value this experience.
1. The Chicago Bears should not want Dan Feeney in the long term plans
It should be noted that Dan Feeney had his best play at center. In 2017, his pass block efficiency rating was 96.9. Then, it dropped to 93.7 and 94.9 after teams started to get more tape and an understanding of his strengths and weaknesses.
Still, once he got to play center, his efficiency rating went back to 95.1. That is an improvement. He was also best in 2021 at center. That shows that he can play center, but the Chicago Bears had better hope that is a short-term option.
As we noted, there is a reason he has seven starts over the past two years. There is also a reason that after he got 16 games starting at center, the best play of his recent career, he still had to sign with the Jets as a backup. The Chargers were ready to upgrade, and the Jets viewed him as a backup center.
That is how the Chicago Bears have to view him. This is a small upgrade over Sam Mustipher. The team has to be trying to push him back out of the starting lineup as soon as they can get healthy.
Because he can play both guard spots as well as center, he has more value on the roster than someone like Alex Leatherwood, but this is not a move that is going to save the season.