Bear Digest

Awesome stat proves how much the Chicago Bears improved after Joe Thuney trade

The Chicago Bears won the Joe Thuney trade, and this stat proves why.

Bryan Perez

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Data often helps tell a deeper part of a story, and when analyzing the Chicago Bears' trade for Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro guard Joe Thuney, there's one statistic that screams just how big of an upgrade the Bears' offensive line added.

Check out these numbers from Next Gen Stats:

"At his primary position of left guard, Thuney allowed just a 4.4% pressure rate last season, which ranked 3rd-lowest in the NFL and was less than half the pressure rate allowed by the Bears left guards (9.0%, 4th-highest of any offense)," per NextGen Stats.

Thuney is such a massive upgrade for this Bears offensive line and quarterback Caleb Williams, whose guards routinely failed him in 2024, resulting in the fourth-highest pressure rate in the NFL.

Thuney, meanwhile, was among the elite pass-blocking guards last season.

Williams was sacked an NFL-high 68 times in 2024, and the toll it took on the first-year passer was obvious. He started seeing ghosts by midseason, and while he certainly deserves some of the blame for that sack total, the lack of pocket integrity was a huge problem.

Hence, Joe Thuney.

Poles promised Bears fans that he would be aggressive in his effort to fix the offensive line this offseason. So far, he's been a man of his word.

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Bryan Perez
BRYAN PEREZ

Bryan Perez founded and operated Bears Talk, a Chicago sports blog. Prior to that, he covered the Bears for USA Today’s Bears Wire and NBC Sports Chicago. In addition to his Chicago Bears coverage, Perez is a respected member of NFL Draft media and was a past winner of The Huddle's Mock Draft competition. Bryan's past life includes time as a Northeast scout for the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks.

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