Bears' Offensive Linemen Facing Longest Roster Odds
In days gone by a friend and former columnist for the Peoria Journal Star named Phil Theobald wrote a column right before the opening game of every high school football season.
The entire column was a list of names. No sentences. No grammar. Just a list of names.
At the end, he had a couple sentences.
"These are the offensive linemen of the teams in the Peoria area. You won't see their names the rest of the year."
That was it. Every year he did this.
Well, this is my list of the six Bears linemen whose names you probably won't see the rest of the year. They're lumped together here because making a video of each one would be quite impossible since there isn't enough material to work with in the photo library.
In some cases, there's one photo. Their mom sent it in or something.
Dino Boyd is a lineman the Bears signed to their practice squad last November after he'd been with the Chiefs briefly as an undrafted free agent. A bit undersized, he needs to bulk up and gain more experience because he played three of his four college seasons for Rhode Island, graduated and transferred for a season to Cincinnati. Rhode Island isn't exactly major college football.
The Chiefs had him on the practice squad and they have a knack for finding undrafted linemen and coaching them up, although the percentages of success with doing this are still lower than trying to draft one.
The Bears don't have an overabundance of tackles on the roster so it's possible he could have a future in Chicago.
Badara Traore is the 6-foot-7, 335-pound LSU tackle who was only a backup for the Tigers with a couple of starts. He needs to improve his footwork before he could ever be an NFL starter, according to scouts. Speed rushers would have a field day with him.
Eiselen is a South African who started out playing rugby and learned American football basically by watching the Super Bowl or taped telecasts of games. He was a weightlifter and came to the U.S. and played at Yale.
So he's well beyond being a simple project. He is the longest of shots to make a roster. At least he's not back at Yale, where they've already canceled football for this season.
Sam Mustipher has been with the Bears on the practice squad for a year after signing out of Notre Dame as an undrafted free agent. He has yet to make a move up the ladder as a backup center. He's facing stiff roster competition from veteran Corey Levin. And the Bears' offensive line has two starters who can play center in James Daniels and Cody Whitehair.
Usually reserve centers need to be multi-position players and most can go out to guard. Whether Mustipher can actually do this isn't clear.
Lachavious Simmons is the Tennessee State seventh-round pick by the Bears this season who grew up on an Alabama farm and built himself up by bailing hay.
Nicknamed "Pig," Simmons has a long reach and although many predraft assessments have put him down as a guard the Bears think he has a chance to be a right tackle. He has the size, but the experience against NFL caliber opponents will be quite a jump after he was the only HBCU player to be drafted in 2020 and faced much lesser competition than many draft picks.
Arlington Hambright is the other seventh-round pick they made who is from Colorado and caught their attention with what he did at a pro day. He ran a 4.95-second 40 at 6-foot-5, 300 pounds.
"You know, everybody talked about (Jets first-round pick) Mekhi Becton and his 40 at the combine," Bears scout David Williams told Bears All Access with Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer. "Arlington Hambright did that and also 29 reps on the bench. So we're talking about a pretty rugged, strong offensive player here."
Hambright might have finished at Colorado, but his playing experinece at a Division I level is a huge obstacle. He only played six games as a junior at Oklahoma State and transferred. And before Oklahoma State he was a JUCO player.
Arlington Hambright
Colorado G
Height: 6-foot-5
Weight: 300
The Background: Hambright won a NJCAA title in 2016 with Garden City, before transferring to Oklahoma State and then Colorado.
*****
2020 Projection: Practice squad.
Lachavious Simmons
Tennessee State T/G
Height: 6-foot-5
Weight: 315
The Background: Started seven games at left guard and five at left tackle his final season and through his career played both guard and both tackle positions.
2020 Projection: Practice squad.
*****
Dieter Eiselen
Yale G
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 310
The Background: South African born and started 34 games in college with All-Ivy League selections for the best rushing team in the conference despite teaching himself the game while living in South Africa.
2020 Projection: Practice squad
*****
Sam Mustipher
Notre Dame C
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 311
The Background: All 37 of his college starts came at center for Notre Dame.
2020 Projection: Cut vicitm.
*****
Badara Traore
LSU T
Height: 6-foot-7
Weight: 320 pounds
The Background: Played at LSU only two years with 26 games played and five starts after transferring from Brooklyn's ASA College, a junior college.
2020 Projection: Cut victim.
*****
Dino Boyd
Cincinnati T
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 300
The Background: Came in as an undrafted free agent with the Chiefs and was cut, went to Cincinnati and was cut and was signed by the Bears to their practice squad on Nov. 12 .
2020 Projection: Cut victim.
Twitter:BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
