Depends on what you want to do. Ive always preferred mixing it up with my OTs and Center manning it up while sending both Guards up the field in the run game. While switching it up depending on the play call.
The bigger lineman on BOTH sides of the ball ARE recently getting faster and more agile. You can actually find reports now on how the bigger NOSE TACKLES from the collegiate level are more and more developing the quick twitch first step of the smaller 3 TECHNIQUES.
That is crazy but it IS occurring. We will need a force at the CENTER position to deal with theses hybrid NTs all over the league.
Give me 6'3 and 340 all day.
Really, at this point, while I get what Poles wants ideally, the fact is, I see the Bears having a RB room (Montgomery/Herbert/Cohen) and a not-horrible TE room (Kmet/James/Horstead) that they should build the offense around, with Fields as kind of a supporting player as they develop him. Any plan that doesn't build on this for the short term isn't realistic, IMO. Restructuring Whitehair is step one.
On the defense, if they restructure Mack, Goldman, and Jackson, they can bring back Hicks and Nichols for a DT rotation with Goldman. Bring back Burns as one option at CB2 and Ogletree as a veteran LB.
Then, if the draft goes like my mock, some real options open up:
2022 NFL User Mock Draft. Mock Draft After Quinn Trade - Da Bears
www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com
In the draft, I looked for O-Line help and got it in Faalele and Mays. Faalele would be the biggest guy on the field, and for run-blocking, that could help. Mays has played all over the O-Line and is 325 pounds per UT (
Cade Mays - Football - University of Tennessee Athletics) and I think he could even be a way to push Mustiphar at center. Mays is 6'6", but I like everything else about him.
I end up with Ruckert, Fields's TE at Ohio State and Jelani Woods to bolster the TE room. The former gives Fields a familiar target, and the latter is a freak at 6'7", 275 pounds.
I get a couple of WRs in Jalen Tolbert and Slade Bolden. The former's a deep threat who can stretch the field and make playaction a real threat. The latter is a good-hands, good-routes WR who might be a poor man's A-Rob.
On defense, I get CB Kyler Gordon, LB Brandon Smith, and Leo Chenal, a CB2 and two young LBs. I'll take QB/LB Jack Colletto as a UDFA, and develop him at FB.
For free agency, my big target might be Quandre Diggs. He takes strong safety, Eddie Jackson goes back to free safety, and the Bears can go with a 55-man like this:
QB: Fields, Mariota (FA)
RB: Montgomery, Herbert, Cohen
FB: Colletto (R)
WR: Mooney, Smith-Shuster (FA), Grant, Tolbert (R), Bolden (R), Newsome
TE: Kmet, Ruckert (R), Horstead, Woods (R)
LT: Borom, Jenkins, Mays (R)
LG: Whitehair, Bars, Mays (R)
C: Mustiphar, Wright, Mays (R)
RG: Daniels, Bars, Mays (R)
RT: Faalele (R), Jenkins, Mays (R)
LDE: Gipson, Edwards, Snowden
LDT: Nichols, Goldman, Tonga
RDT: Hicks, Goldman, Blackson
RDE: Mack, Irvin, Snowden
WLB: R. Smith, Dawkins, Thomas (FA)
MLB: Ogletree, C. Johnson, B. Smith (R)
SLB: Thomas (FA), Chanel (R), L. Mack
CB1: J. Johnson, T. Graham, Vildor
CB2: Gordon (R), Burns, Vildor
SS: Diggs (FA), Bush, Houston-Carlson
FS: E. Jackson, Bush, Houston-Carlson
K: Santos
P: Winslow
LS: Brinkley
KR: Herbert, Cohen, Grant
PR: Cohen, Grant, Newsome
That roster could sneak up on people in 2022.
