Bears Face Offensive Line Fix at Multiple Levels
One of the areas of biggest concern for the Bears this offseason is the offensive line, and it's not a place where they have infinite ways to improve.
It might be the area where Bears general manager Ryan Pace mistakenly evaluated most, other than quarterback.
It is definitely an area where they under-performed and need to improve.
They may have already improved by changing offensive line coaches to Juan Castillo. Although Harry Hiestand was generally respected as a line coach, it's possible he just wasn't the person to teach the type of blocking scheme coach Matt Nagy wanted implemented.
Changing players would be a far more complicated matter.
"All those guys are under contract," Pace said.
Convinced about their ability, Pace essentially locked up the starting five with contracts or restructured contracts.
They converted $7 million of the salary of Charles Leno Jr. to guaranteed money, which keeps them committed to him for at least another year. They're pretty much married to the two tackles for at least another year unless they like looking at dead salary cap space.
The Bears then allowed more sacks than in any season since 2011 (45) and finished 29th in rushing yards per attempt
Now their options are limited to getting better talent because of the cash committed already to this group.
"It's what kind of competition are we going to bring in against them," Pace said.
With two second-round picks, they have the ability to improve through the draft, which would not exhaust their cash availability by any stretch. It's usually difficult finding opening day starting tackles outside the first round, but not impossible. This isn't the case at guard.
Adding free agents at either spot might be a matter of picking through trash to find a gem.
It's possible they will get better as guard/center James Daniels has more experience, and they settle on a position for him. The move to center then flop back to guard, couldn't have helped his understanding of how to block in his second NFL season.
"I think when you look at James, he's still one of the youngest players on our team," Pace said. "He's still developing. I think he got a lot better as the season went on. As far as where we're going to put him next year, that is still going to be an evolution."
Daniels insists he doesn't prefer either spot, but did his play improve as a guard.
"I felt like it did," Daniels said. "I mean, whatever position I'm playing if it helps the team win, that's all I'm trying to do."
Daniels actually graded out higher than any Bears lineman, according to Pro Football Focus. He was the only one in the 70s on their grading scale.
Deciding what to do with the Daniels-Cody Whitehair situation is probably the first big decision they have to make after Kyle Long's status cleared up with his decision to retire.
"I think there's a couple things there," Pace said. "The injury to Kyle. Switching Whitehair and James. Injury to (Bobby) Massie late in the year.
"We struggled in that area this year. That's real. I think we know it starts up front with those guys."
Either drafting or signing another guard or tackle or combo for the line mix overall, or giving second-year reserve Alex Bars a chance to compete could be another way to solve what they need at right guard.
Bars finally got off the practice squad by the end of the year but still didn't get playing time. Long's right guard replacement, Rashaad Coward, had the lowest PFF grade of Bears offensive linemen last season at 51.5, although he allowed only one sack.
Right guard was one position which bogged down their offense.
"One thing that's always been in my mind, we can never lose track of adding talent to our offensive line. It's critical," Pace said. "We'll look at that. Whether it's tackle or interior linemen, it's all something we need to analyze."
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
