Bear Digest

Biggest Bears offensive improvement heading to camp an easy call

The Bears have made numerous changes on offense since they beat Green Bay to close the 2024 season but the biggest one going to camp is an obvious and needed one.
Gene Chamberlain|
Drew Dalman blocks against padded-up guard Luke Newman during offseason drills at Halas Hall.
Drew Dalman blocks against padded-up guard Luke Newman during offseason drills at Halas Hall. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

A problem cited as the lingering question for the Bears heading in to training camp by The Athletic's Adam Jahns is the left tackle situation.

Few would argue, but is it really all that serious? The Bears seem to have taken care of the tough stuff on the line already.
Will they start with Braxton Jones able to practice after rehabbing from ankle surgery or must they start out with rookie Ozzy Trapilo or second-year tackle Kiran Amegadjie with the first team?
Ultimately, improving the offensive line has been the key to their offseason and they did focus on this with their acquisition of three new offensive line players. It's been a long time coming, but the reconstruction of the Bears' offensive line change has been called for over the years in many ways and by many people but never really fully addressed until now.

Of all the reasons for expecting improvement from the Bears offense from last year to 2025, this change is biggest.

A long time coming

No less an expert on offensive line play than former All-Pro center Olin Kreutz has been calling for drastic offensive line change since the end of the Matt Nagy regime in 2021, and he traced it all the way back another few years.
"Ryan Pace and coach Nagy told you in 2019 our problem is the offensive line; they fired their offensive line coach," Kreutz said on NBC Sports when the 2021 season and the Nagy regime were ending. "They still have not fixed that spot. If you have a young quarterback who you think is a franchise quarterback, you've got to give him a chance.
"If the guy (new coach) coming in doesn't tell you my No. 1 priority is to fix the offensive line, then hang the phone up."


Instead, they putzed along, talking and dabbling at change, going with Chris Morgan as a line coach without seeing critical improvement, and they kept fitting an individual piece here and there without success before they went out and acquired Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson and Drew Dalman.
There is more to offensive line success than just tackle play and this fact had always seemed to elude the Bears.

These were not second-level free agents they brought in.

They were players who would have been highly sought if they hit free agency.

Highest quality linemen

They could have settled for Colts center Ryan Clark, who hasn't been top 10 among centers graded by Pro Football Focus since 2019, and instead signed Drew Dalman, the fourth-graded center. They could have settled for Will Fries at guard, a Clark teammate with the Colts who had three poor to mediocre seasons until arriving last year big time. Instead, they went for a four-time Super Bowl winner in Thuney and brought in Jackson by trade, a player Johnson already knew he could count on from Detroit.
The key here is line coach Dan Roushar, who built and maintained a successful line in New Orleans. While Morgan coached a line to the Super Bowl once, the Falcons hadn't been a consistent winner. Morgan definitely didn't have a consistently successful line with the Bears.
Johnson is expressing supreme confidence in Roushar.


"Was just telling the team that any time you can get 40 minutes of individual with coach Roushar and (assistant O-line) coach (Adam) DeVan with the offensive line, that's usually a good thing," Johnson said. "That's where the technicians come out, and they like to have a little bit of fun."
A far more experienced coaching staff as a whole than what Matt Eberflus was working with on offense last year is enough to heighten expectations, but Roushar is especially revered on the offensive line.

The final piece

It just comes down to the one uncertain offensive line position with Jones' injury and the inexperience behind him if he still isn't ready.
With Roushar's experience bringing along younger linemen, it seems possible they'd be fine either way. Also, the makeup of the alternative players lends itself to teaching them quickly to fit into the line.

"The cool thing to see is Ozzy, for a guy that's a young player, he's really polished in terms of the mental aspect of the game," Johnson said. "We're looking to key up some things, quicken up his steps and his identification process.
"Kiran has done a nice job, for the little bit that we've had him, as well, just with the growth process. So far, so good."
The idea is to start off with a line capable of handling multiple blocking schemes in the ground game and protecting the quarterback far better than they have over the last four years, when they allowed 50 sacks or more—including a league-high 68 last year.

They've given up 234 sacks in four seasons. It might be time to let the quarterback throw the ball for a change and they look prepared to do it.

Nothing is ever certain and there are reasons to worry about a few things on the line. However, with or without an injury issue at left tackle, the Bears have been most drastically altered on offense on the line. Some would say it's about time.

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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.