Bear Digest

Bears keeping focus on offensive line depth with player visit

Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson are in place as starters but the Bears haven't forgotten the guard position for the draft as their latest 30 visit announcement shows.
Gene Chamberlain|
Dylan Fairchild runs through drills at the NFL scouting combine. Fairchild is a player who will visit Halas Hall.
Dylan Fairchild runs through drills at the NFL scouting combine. Fairchild is a player who will visit Halas Hall. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The offensive line remains an area of focus for the Bears with the draft considering their newest 30-visit announcement.

Ryan Fowler of The Draft Network reports Georgia guard Dylan Fairchild will have a visit to Halas Hall.


The 6-foot-5, 318-pound Fairchild was a very steady performer throughout his career with Pro Football Focus blocking grades ranging only between 73.1 and 80.3 over his three seasons.

PFF had him giving up only one sack over the past three seasons and he is not a converting or converted player as all his college snaps have been at one of the guard spots. He played 1,309 snaps at left guard and 214 at right guard.

The consensus big board of NFL Mock Draft Database has Fairchild rated a fourth-round pick and the best he has been on there was the 84th pick.

So the Bear would be thinking third round or possibly trading back and getting him in Round 4 according to the mocks.

There is need still for depth at this position. Ryan Bates ranks as the top backup followed by Bill Murray. Both finished last year on injured reserve.

With Joe Thuney in Chicago on only a one-year contract, it's going to be necessary to build up depth capable of becoming the starter.

The Bears seem to cherish the idea of linemen who were wrestlers and Fairchild is a wrestler who was a lineman too. His high school career ended with a perfect 47-0 record and a state title.

Toughness, character, what he stands for, just as a man — I have a lot of respect for Dylan and the way he’s gone about his approach,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Fairchild, who was on the scout team for two years paying his dues before getting a chance.

Mel Kiper was impressed with Fairchild enough to rank him No. 6 among guards in the draft, while Pro Football Focus thinks a little less of him and rates him No. 196 on its draft board, which puts him back in Round 6.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.