Ryan Poles has been busy trying to turn the Chicago Bears into contenders. He made two trades before free agency even began and acquired two potential starting guard options. The move looks great on paper, but there is one flaw to the application and it is one that has haunted him in the past.
Poles does not seem to be keen on worrying about which side offensive linemen play on. Joe Thuney is known for kicking out to left tackle, but that was in desperation. He has 10,734 snaps at left guard, 470 snaps at left tackle, 128 snaps at center, and eight snaps in total on the right side, all coming at tackle.
Does Ryan Poles need to consider sides when evaluating offensive line for the Chicago Bears?
Meanwhile, Jonah Jackson has played 3,706 snaps at left guard, 131 snaps at center, and 211 snaps at right guard. The Rams played him 107 snaps at center last year, and they thought he was their answer there, but they quickly moved off of that.
So, the Bears have two very experienced left guards. The Bears tried this the last time they added two guards. They signed Nate Davis, who has only played right guard when Teven Jenkins was on their roster with right guard experience. They shifted Jenkins over, and let Davis start. You could argue it made both spots worse in the first year of the transition.
While the Bears are hoping this works better, and the name of Joe Thuney brings a lot more reliability, it is still going to be a risk.
The odds are that Jonah Jackson slides over, does his play drop off? If Thuney looks old or gets hurt, do they move him back? Will this end up hurting Poles again, where he may have been better off adding one of these two and then addressing right guard in the draft? Time will tell.