Playing Musical Chairs with Bears O-Line

Bears guard Teven Jenkins last season made the switch from right tackle to right guard look easy, or even better.

He seemed a natural.

When asked following preseason about the move after he established he could play there, Jenkins still seemed a bit uncertain.

"I still think of myself as a tackle that can go down and play guard," Jenkins said. "And I might—as of right now. Is it better for my career to be guard? Yeah, probably. So that means I'm all for it right now.

"I also label myself as a tackle."

He might have labeled himself a tackle, but he never established he could play the position better than Larry Borom and especially Riley Reiff.

After the season, Jenkins said his future position was on his mind when he spoke to coaches.

"I did ask that in meetings, but they didn't want to get too in depth about it," Jenkins said.

The Coming Draft and Bears Line

Fast forward to the coming draft and there is the distinct possibility the Bears could draft Northwestern tackle Peter Skoronski. More and more, Skoronski gets projected as a Bears selection in mock drafts.

Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo mocked the first round and came up with Skoronski as the pick for the Bears at No. 9, just as Mel Kiper Jr. and NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah have done.

There's a good reason for this.

Skoronski is the best blocker in the draft. It seems to be a consensus opinion of scouts and the reason Skoronski's name almost always is the first off the board in mock drafts among offensive linemen.

The Bears need blocking, as well as defensive linemen.

No. 9 in the draft is an ideal spot for a tackle to go after a run on four quarterbacks, some defensive linemen and maybe running back Bijan Robinson, as well as the enigma known as Jalen Carter.

However, the catch in this ideal scenario for the Bears is the large number of projections saying Skoronski must be a guard at the next level—or at least that he would better used as a guard.

Someone who blocks like Skoronski does probably could play at tackle in the NFL. In fact, he could probably play any position on the line.

However, a player should be used at a position where his skills are maximized.

The shorter (32 1/4 inches) arms Skoronski has indicate to many it would be easier for him to shoot his hands and get them on a defensive tackle coming at him within the "phone booth," so to speak, rather than at an edge rusher when someone whose arms are 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches longer could play there more naturally.

A reason this might not be the best situation for the Bears is they already have too many guards as it is.

Best Use of Each Player

Braxton Jones is the left tackle. He outperformed all possible expectations for a fifth-round draft pick from a small school and was an exceptional run blocker. He's trying to get stronger to cope with his one weakness—handling bull rushers. Maximizing his skill is to keep him at left tackle, where he played in college and in his first NFL season.

They just signed a right guard, Nate Davis, and have decided to try left guard Cody Whitehair back at center, where he had the highest Pro Football Focus blocking grades of his career from 2016-18 before they started splitting his time between center and guard for two years and ultimately making him a guard.

It seems to an extent like they've wasted Whitehair's career by doing what they did to him. He was phenomenal for a rookie at center in 2016 with an overall PFF grade of 87.5, 86.7 as a pass blocker and 86.3 as a run blocker. They started changing his position a bit in 2017 due to another injury, put him back at center in 2018 and he made the Pro Bowl, then started splitting his time between center and guard. He became less effective with decent blocking grades but nothing like when he was at center. He was a very good center, an above-average guard. So this move to center does make perfect sense.

Keeping Davis at right guard makes sense because he played there four years with the Titans. He hasn't played other positions. Davis built himself from an awful rookie according to PFF standards to a good right guard. So keeping Davis at right guard lets him maximize his skills.

So if they draft Skoronski, the questions only are at left guard and right tackle. The decision comes down to where to play Skoronski and where to play Jenkins so both are maximizing their skills.

If Skoronski's blocking skills are as good as scouts believe, it would seem he'd be capable of doing either and being effective.

Jenkins, meanwhile, did not excel when the Bears tried him starting at right tackle in the past, even though he started at both left and right tackle in college.

What Jenkins has shown, too, is the ability to move positions and adapt. He did it at right guard last year. Maybe he can do it by moving to left guard. He did play the left side of the line at tackle in college, and then in the NFL showed he was good as a right guard.

So the bottom line is the best Bears use of these players if they draft Skoronski would be to play him at right tackle, move Jenkins to left guard, go forward with Davis lining up where he has only played played, Jones where he has only played and Whitehair where he played best.

Teven Jenkins an Odd Man Out?

Jenkins might think of himself still as a tackle, but he hasn't proven he can do it at this level. He has proven he can play guard and that he can move positions.

Skoronski would be the ninth pick in the draft and hasn't been a guard. Jenkins was the 39th pick of the draft and hasn't proven he can play tackle in the NFL but can play guard.

Regardless, nothing would be written in stone immediately and they could always look in camp at Skoronski both at left guard and right tackle to find out how it all works.

If they did this and found Skoronski was better at left guard than right tackle, Jenkins could very well find he is the one out of a starting spot.

Even if he thinks of himself as a tackle who had to move to guard, Jenkins never really showed he could play on the outside in the NFL.

In this scenario and at that right tackle position, Jenkins would be the only member of the Bears line not being allowed to maximize his skill set.

The Best Fit?

LT Braxton Jones Jr.

LG Teven Jenkins

C Cody Whitehair

RG Nate Davis

RT Peter Skoronski*

*Projected draft pick

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