Interior Rehab for the Bears Line

The Bears say their offensive line's scheme revolves around movement by big athletes.

There has been plenty of movement in the offseason along the offensive line but of a different type.

Neither of the guards who will practice with starters when training camp begins played their positions in Chicago last year. Teven Jenkins made 11 starts at right guard while Nate Davis played left guard for Tennessee. The move means Cody Whitehair has gone back from left guard to center, where he started his career.

The changing lineup and new fit of returning players, coupled with inexperience, are overriding issues facing the Bears line at the outset of camp. The Bears had to wait until the last half of their four weeks of off-season work before they saw all five line starters together on the field but at least they got in that work.

They also made certain the players knew ahead of time who would be moving where, and Jenkins appreciated this so he could alter footwork as he went from right to the left side.

"I got back in my playbook, had to flip because certain plays are going this way and now they have to go this way," he said. "My whole mindset had to change. So it was very good to have that time in between."

It is a real change because of technique.

"Footwork mostly," Jenkins said. "Just using your hands and where they aim and where to hit. A big thing for me right now is my pass pro. That's the thing. I'm trying to get better at it."

Jenkins has convinced Pro Football Focus he'll continue to be one of the league's best guards regardless of position. He ranked third in their grading scale overall last year at right guard. Now they have him on their "breakout team" for this season at left guard.

"With a full season as a guard under his belt, look for Jenkins to continue to make strides toward becoming one of the top linemen in the league," PFF's Jim Wyman wrote of Jenkins in his article about the breakout team.

As a rookie, Jenkins played played 157 of 158 snaps at left tackle. So he's familiar with the side of the line and the guard task. He hadn't played any guard his last three years in college, so Jenkins seems well-suited for the job considering the success he's had with limited exposure to his new position.

There's another benefit to guards moving. The greatest inexperience issue facing the Bears is rookie right tackle Darnell Wright. Instead of lining up next to Jenkins, who has been a guard all of 13 games, Wright the former Tennessee player will have the benefit of being next to Davis and his 54 NFL starts at right guard.

This can't hurt in their communication when handling stunting pass rushers or blitzers.

"He's got a good bank of experience," Bears line coach Chris Morgan said of Davis. "He's got some wisdom. He's got some knowledge. He's got a veteran presence now."

Anything that can stabilize the line is welcome, so they're all moving in the same direction.

The Starters

Teven Jenkins: No. 76, the 6-foot-6, 320-pound former Oklahoma State player is at his third starting position in three NFL seasons but left guard is one where he didn't even start a game in college. He had starting experience in college at right tackle, left tackle and right guard. Jenkins says he needs to improve his pass blocking, but gave up just two sacks and committed only three penalties one year after he had the same number of sacks and seven penalties for three times more plays on the field.

Nate Davis: No. 64, the 6-foot-3, 316-pounder spent his first four seasons at his current position of right guard for the Titans. He's coming off his best and most consistent season according to PFF blocking grades, and last year for 385 snaps gave up three sacks and committed four penalties. The 14 pressures PFF said he allowed last year were less than half what he gave up in each of his second and third seasons. Davis' strength has been blocking the run, leading the way for Derrick Henry in a wide zone blocking like the Bears use.

Cody Whitehair: No. 65, a 31-year-old, 6-3, 316-pounder now in his seventh season, he has made 107 starts and people probably don't realize it at this point but he's been in more plays (3,870) where he initiated the snap at center than where he was a guard (2,952). He's been the starting left guard since mid-2020 but now it's back where he started and recorded an extremely high PFF grade of 87.5 as a rookie. Whitehair is coming off a season when he had no penalties, the second time he's done this in three years. His last full season at center was 2018, when he made the Pro Bowl as an alternate. Last year he went through the whole season without allowing a sack except for one game. PFF gave him the blame for four sacks allowed against Philadelphia in that one, the same number he gave up for all of 2021 and one more than he allowed in any other full season in his career.

The Backups

Lucas Patrick: No. 62, a 6-3, 313-pounder who turns 30 near the start of training camp and is in his seventh season. He was brought in to start at center but injuries prevented this last year. Now he is in the second and final year of a contract and needs to prove himself after playing just seven games with five starts. Only 10 plays came at center as he had to go to guard due to injuries. The dual backup role of guard and center seems ideal for him because he has done it before in Green Bay. He has played more snaps at right guard (1,170) than at center (968) and has filled in for 613 at left guard. Patrick had been a solid pass blocker his previous four years with the Packers. Last year he gave up two sacks without a penalty committed. His best Packer season, according to PFF, came in 2020 when he played 708 snaps at right guard, 220 at left guard and just eight at center with three penalties committed.

Ja'Tyre Carter: No. 69, a 6-3, 311-pound seventh-rounder from Southern, had only 31 plays on offense at right guard last season as a rookie. He rated out strong for those plays as a pass blocker by PFF at an 83.9 grade on 19 pass block sets. Carter got his most extensive play with starters during OTAs this spring when Davis was away from the team for two weeks. He'll have plenty of competition for second backup guard because he doesn't play center and backup Dieter Eiselen does play both. In addition, backup tackle Larry Borom has played guard and so has backup tackle Alex Leatherwood. Also, a few of the undrafted free agents brought in are promising.

Dieter Eiselen: No. 60, a 6-4, 300-pound undrafted free agent from South Africa who has been with the practice squad and regular roster off and on since 2020. He's been in 14 games and on the field for 105 plays, 63 on offense. Only three of his offensive plays came at guard. He was given only a 31.9 pass-blocking grade from PFF last year for 41 pass block sets because of five pressures and five hurries allowed. The first task with developing Eiselen was exposure to a high level of football since he is from overseas and he played college ball at Yale. They appear past this and he needs to prove he's capable of beating out Doug Kramer and Ja'Tyre Carter to earn a roster spot.

Doug Kramer: No. 68, a 6-2, 300-pound center from Illinois and Hinsdale Central chosen in the 2022 sixth round. He missed all last season due to a training camp lower leg injury and will bolster his chances to make the roster if he can prove in preseason he plays guard as well as center. He's not an entire unknown this camp because he practiced last off-season and in training camp through the second week of August, while appearing in one preseason game. PFF loved his play in college, saying he was the third-best true pass set blocker among Power Five conferences in 2018-19. He also was said in 2019 to have had 14 big-time run-blocks, most ever recorded by PFF among Power Five centers.

Gabriel Houy: No. 79, a 6-6, 306-pound former Pitt tackle and guard who was undrafted. The 24-year-old rookie figures in camp with the third team as a guard rather than a tackle. He played at guard in the off-season work. Probably needs to gain some quickness through system familiarity because he had just a 5.3-second 40 time. An injury from the previous year limited his playing time as he rehabbed and the lack of games his final year may have kept him left him being a UDFA.

Josh Lugg: No. 63, the 6-6, 316-pounder from Notre Dame is 24 and an undrafted free agent and definitely needs work at his footspeed after a 5.7 time in the 40 during the Irish pro day. This would have been the slowest combine lineman 40 time if he had run it there. Neck and knee injuries at times slowed his Irish career. He became a starter his final season for 12 games at right tackle. He suffered a torn meniscus late in his final season and it slowed him for a while the off-season.

2023 Prospectus

They haven't had this much experience/draft pedigree at these offensive line positions since early in Kyle Long's time at guard, in 2014 when Roberto Garza was still the center. Even then, the talent level of all three positions should be much higher. But it's going to take several games to get them all working as a unit because of all the change. When it does click, they have great potential to be physical and mobile in the wide-zone scheme. They also have experienced depth for a change with Patrick's availability. The pass blocking will be the question, and should be after 58 sacks allowed each of the last two seasons.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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