When the Bears hired former offensive linemen to run their team in general manager Ryan Poles and assistant general manager Ian Cunningham in 2022, it seemed as though, if nothing else, they would get that part of the roster right.
Far from it.
As Poles and Cunningham close a disastrous third season and face a now-or-never 2025, they’ll likely be looking for four new starters. Only right tackle Darnell Wright, the No. 10 overall pick last year, is sure to return — and even he might need to move to left tackle.
Plenty has gone wrong as the Bears sit 4-10 ahead of their home game Sunday against the Lions, but no deficiency glares like the offensive line. Poles believed it’d be at least league-average and noted “the best depth I’ve ever had.”
That miscalculation is at the top of the list of ways he failed rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, right there with entrusting him to Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron.
Williams has been sacked 58 times, most in the NFL, and while that’s partly due to indecision in the pocket, he often had no chance. Against the Vikings, outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard stormed past rookie left tackle Kiran Amegadjie and hit Williams from his blind side for a strip-sack just as he finished dropping back.
In too many instances, Poles and Cunningham thought they knew something the rest of the league didn’t.
The Bears have invested one first-round pick on the line and have spent the second-least in the league. Pro Football Focus ranked their line 26th this week.
Conversely, the top 10 lines all were built with premium resources:
- The Lions are ranked fifth and have spent the 10th-most. They acquired three of their five starters with first-round picks.
- The Eagles, who have the top-rated line, pumped two firsts and two seconds into it, and left tackle Jordan Mailata was a seventh-rounder who proved himself and earned a second contract for $68 million over three years.
- As the Chiefs look for a three-peat, they’re spending more on the offensive line than at any other position. Three of their top eight salary-cap hits are for linemen.
Among the linemen on the top 10 units, 26 were first- or second-round picks by their current team and six were major trade or free-agent pickups, typically veterans who made at least one Pro Bowl.
The Bears, meanwhile, tried to be clever.
They’ve continued to count on Braxton Jones, a 2022 fifth-rounder, at left tackle. Center Coleman Shelton was available in free agency for just $3.5 million on a one-year deal. Right guard Matt Pryor, on his fourth team in five seasons, signed for $1.1 million.
The rest of the NFL didn’t agree that those were starting-caliber players.
The only high draft choice on the Bears’ line other than Wright is left guard Teven Jenkins, whom Ryan Pace picked in the second round to play left tackle. His conversion to guard is a success, but a contract extension is risky because of durability concerns.
Jenkins is questionable for Sunday due to a calf injury, and Jones is questionable because of a concussion.
Poles’ lone financial splurge on the line was the three-year, $30 million contract he gave Nate Davis, who had red flags about work ethic and wasn’t the team’s top target at guard. He played 16 games over two seasons before the Bears cut him.
Poles and Cunningham could attack this with their three picks in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft, currently Nos. 9, 36, and 40, perhaps taking a tackle in the first round and two interior linemen in the second. However, that would leave other significant needs unaddressed, including an almost equal shortfall on the defensive line.
That dilemma illustrates the essence of the problem: As other issues loom, the Bears are trying to fix the one thing they should’ve nailed down from the start.
