When looking at the issues plaguing the Chicago Bears Offensive Line, one must ask, "Is it the GM, the coaches, the players, or the culture?"
The answer to all of the above is simply, "yes."
Let us start with the low hanging fruit first.
Recently, Teven Jenkins took a clear shot at the coaching staff when he said, "We get our call up front and we execute to what we're getting coached to do. A lot of things happen like pressures and stuff, so we can only control so much." This caused many in the fan base to turn on the coaching staff, which was a likely scenario from the beginning, considering they held over Eberflus; however, to pin it all on the coaching staff is a weak-minded crutch that most people would do well to avoid.
The players also hold a large portion of the responsibility. Braxton Jones has been beaten repeatedly, particularly on outside zone running plays, where he cannot seem to seal the edge consistently. Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, and Nate Davis (or proxy) get zero push and cannot even consistently get three yards on a power play between the tackles, which should be a gimme. Even Darnell Wright, by all accounts a mauler, has struggled with consistently setting the edge.
And that is without bringing up their pass blocking into account. Pick a name from a hat and you can easily find a highlight reel (or lowlight reel?) of them over the first few games.
It is hard for any coach, heck, even Andy Reid, to know what to run when the blockers are whiffing on blocks, getting beaten inside on pass protection, and are failing to set the edge.
Now, does that mean that the coaches have been perfect?
Hardly.
I am a big believer in using the run to set up the pass. As a coach, I did it consistently. If you set a tone that forces the linebackers to hold in place to ensure that the run is not coming, then you have already given your offense an edge. That said, sometimes the defense is set out to stop the run, and they are going to make your young quarterback beat them (this will be a common theme this year), and in this case, you should script a larger percentage of mid to middle deep throws which will force them to back off of the line of scrimmage and give your line better angles to their targets.
Stubborn coaching always creates problems, there is just no way around it, but when you cannot trust your line to set a pocket because your interior offensive line is getting beaten to the inside (including Jenkins), what are you supposed to do?
Do you see the catch 22 yet?
This leads to at least two other questions, the lesser of which I will ask first: " Why is there a culture of accepting poor play?"
Davis will not practice and plays horribly. Jenkins calls out the coaching staff when you can write a how-not-to manual using these first three games as examples. Jones does not seem to know if he is supposed to be blocking inside or outside from play to play, and whoever is playing center today is either getting run over, run around, or is just whiffing on a scraping MLB who then makes the play.
Why does it seem like no one in that room cares that this is happening?
Well, it all starts with acquisition and retention.
Davis clearly had far fewer struggles when he was playing for Tennessee and blocking for Derrick Henry. When you evaluate the tape, you can see why he commanded the contract that he did. Yet lately, the ugly truth has been rising to the surface through rumors that he had horrible practice habits back then and that they had to keep them in check.
Apparently, they could, but we cannot. That is obviously the fault of culture, but if this was known, and as an NFL executive you should know, why did you bring him in?
The only reason Davis is still on the team is the $12.75M dead cap hit if he is cut. With only $2M next year, he should have the movers start packing up his house unless he is prepared to retire and stay in the city.
Then there is Colman Shelton and Ryan Bates. They were brought in to battle for the center position but ended up being one-and-a-half players due to injuries, and even before that, they were not looking like the players you could hang your hat on.
I mean, Bates was beaten by Shelton for the center job before being moved to guard. Yes, that is the same Shelton who was literally run over by a blitzing linebacker in week two. These are the guys that Ryan Poles brings in to play?
This is questionable to say the least.
Free agency also was interesting...
In 2022, Austin Corbett, Ted Karras, Mason Cole, and Bradley Bozeman were all free agents.
In 2023, Jason Kelce, Connor McGovern, Bradley Bozeman, Jake Brendel, and Garrett Bradbury were all pending free agents. Evan Brown changed teams as well.
This past offseason, Connor Williams, Tyler Biadasz, Lloyd Cushenberry, and Aaron Brewer were among the options available.
Is the position of the Bears' scouting and player acquisition department that Shelton and Bates were better than all of the above? That would be a hard case to make.
I like Poles, and I think he has made great strides in bringing talent back to a team that had been strip-mined of all of its talent (which was also his doing). That said, he is struggling with the same issue as our previous GMs. He is going for value picks on the offensive line, and if you do that, you have to hit.
It is one thing to say, "hey, he was clearly one of the best and it just did not work out here."
It is something entirely different to say, "we thought he could be much better than he had shown, and so we took a chance," all while your quarterback is getting sacked 4.33 times per game.
I am not saying that I know who they should have selected or signed. What I am saying is that Poles is paid to know, and so far, it looks like he might have missed that assignment.
So yes, everyone is to blame. There is more than enough to go around. Everyone can point a finger at someone and say that "that" person is to blame, but in the end, every single person in this mess can look in the mirror and say the exact same thing.
