One of the strange twists to last year's disastrous Bears offensive line effort was how some of the backups outperformed starters.
These weren't necessarily players considered as potential starters some day in the future but more stop-gap or long-term league backups.
The Bears lost another one of those in free agency Thursday when Matt Pryor agreed to terms with the Philadelphia Eagles, his former team.
They easily could have retained Pryor if they had wanted him back, so it would appear they were moving on now that they're in a different blocking scheme. But Pryor did serve a purpose.
The 30-year-old, 6-foot-7, 332-pounder didn't tear it up as a pass blocker with seven sacks and 24 penalties allowed. The seven sacks allowed left him behind 130 out of 135 guards in avoiding sacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Yet, PFF gave him the second-best pass blocking grade of his career.
Pryor wound up playing a career-high 1,005 snaps, 895 at right guard, with 15 starts after starter Nate Davis has completely washed out. Pryor was on for one play at left tackle and 59 at right tackle.
Another backup guard who had to play because of Teven Jenkins' injuries, Bill Murray, had a PFF grade even higher than Pryor in a brief stint before a season-ending injury.
The Bears are not entirely depleted at these backup interior line positions behind new starters Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson, as Murray is still there, Ryan Bates is healthy know and plays both guard and center, and backup center Doug Kramer has also had some guard experience. Chris Glaser, who they signed last year, is still with the team, as well.
The need is there to find at least one more backup guard in the draft, however.
Pryor had started out in the league with the Eagles, then was with the Colts and 49ers before his one Bears season.
