Finding Elusive Right Tackle a Bears Goal

While word tackle Orlando Brown Jr. will be tagged by Kansas City came as no great surprise, it did underscore a plight facing the Bears in attempts to fortify the right tackle spot on their line.

It's not like an abundance of right tackles ready to plug and play enter the draft every year, and free agency at this position provides opportunities if the buyer can accept limitations.

Those limits are they might not be getting the perfect player, one who blocks the run just as well as they block the pass.

Even Brown would not have supplied this type of guarantee, at least if Pro Football Focus' grades are applied. There aren't many other ways of measuring offensive line play so accepting PFF's scoring as standard will have to do. And Brown was not the run blocker at left tackle that Bears rookie Braxton Jones was last year. It wasn't even close by PFF grades: a 79.4 mark to 68.8.

Finding someone for the right side in free agency with equal ability block the run and pass is difficult. Falcons tackle Kaleb McGary has been an outstanding run blocker and does know how to block the wide zone, but he's been consistently medicore blocking pass rushers.

Raiders right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor last year had a breakout type of season, blocking both run and pass well and was graded by PFF one spot behind Brown and Jones at No. 21 among all tackles.

The problem with Eluemunor is he is not a system fit at all as a 345-pound right tackle. While the Bears aren't looking for ballet dancers at the position, they do need to be lighter on their feet to get outside and pull occasionally on the wide-zone scheme.

Eluemunor has no experience with this because he spent five seasons as a backup prior to last season, and the only time he would have had blocking something remotely close to the Bears wide zone offensive scheme is in Baltimore for two years. But he only started two games there, was traded to New England and started only five games there in two years. Pro Football Focus calls Eluemunor the one player the Raiders can least afford to be without, but a Spotrac.com estimated market value of $5.6 million probably shows better that the Bears could do without him.

If the Bears could find one tackle could do both fairly well, they'd probably be elated. The best answer might be one who does one thing very well and usually is acceptable at the other.

That's why Mike McGlinchey is their best option at right tackle in free agency. He has always been a strong blocker in their wide zone. He has had seasons to remember and some to forget as a pass blocker.

McGlinchey actually rated a 70.0 as a pass blocker in 2021 and in 2019 at 70.5 than he did as a run blocker, but by and large has been better at blocking the run.

Highly mobile at 310 pounds and 6-8, he has the reach of a tackle who should be able to block the pass and is still young enough at 28 to warrant a longer-term signing.

McGlinchey definitely has had a few poor highlights as a pass blocke, like when Haason Reddick knocked him to the ground in the NFC championship game.

Then again, Reddick didn't exactly look like Bruce Smith himself as he tied to get around Kansas City free agent right tackle Andrew Wylie, who has played more guard than tackle in his career.

So none of these players are perfect and McGlinchey could be a long-term solution at a position where the Bears have seemed to float around aimlessly since Bobby Massie's season-ending injury in 2020 with six different starters.

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