How Confident Are You in the New OL?

[Forty-six]

My Fellow Meatballs...

How confident are you in the revamped OL? Did the Bears do enough to upgrade the line? What upgrades do you like? What do you wish the Bears would have done differently?

My sense is the line is improved but I'm terrified they will still struggle to protect QB1. I am hoping coaching and scheme will make a huge difference.

 

[Marley's Liberality]

Good. I'd feel better if the keep Wright at RT even if LT is a disaster. I'm confident Johnson can scheme around one weak spot

 

[modo]

More confident than the garbage from last year.

The line is going to be at least average. Maybe better.

LT is the ?

 

[Washington]

More confident than the garbage from last year.

The line is going to be at least average. Maybe better.

LT is the ?

My thoughts exactly. To me, LT is a huge question mark.

I also don't want to see the experiment of Wright going to LT. He really struggles against speed rushers and I feel LT would be very tough for him.

 

[Zvbxrpl]

Joe Thuney is going to have to carry some deadweight on his left if Braxton Leno is the plan as a starter. Otherwise, I feel good about 4/5 starters.

Not crazy about depth. The rookie and Bill Murray I like. Still baffled as to why Ryan Bates is even here if he’s retired at this point (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, look up Brad Biggs’ article how Bates went international for treatments last summer and has advanced arthritis where his strength isn’t back to normal/probably won’t be and he isn’t healing correctly).

 

[knoxville7]

the line is improved, but the question that remains is, can caleb stop eating so many sacks as well?

 

[Aquineas]

I feel better than I did last year, but until the left-tackle position is settled, it's still troublesome.

 

[alswank87]

I was 50/50 on the OLine rebounding last year, so I guess my opinion doesn’t hold much weight, but I fully expect a better than average OLine at the very least.

 

[kerschbs]

I feel pretty good. Like everyone else I acknowledge that LT is a question mark, but we’ve devoted a second and third to that position in the last two years and I think we might see the new rookie challenge for that spot in camp.

Dalman and Thuney should be huge improvements over Shelton and Jenkins. Jackson is a question but he’s played with Ben and I expect him to be much better than he was with the rams. Hopefully Wright stays healthy and continues to improve.

The other consideration is hopefully we play a league leading amount of 12. I think the Bears are going to be an excellent run blocking team and hopefully much improved pass pro wide.

 

[Xplosive]

The same people that defended the OLine as good with stats and pff rankings during the Justin Fields debate are the same experts that will say Poles neglected the OLine & trenches this offseason.

The OLine is currently in the best shape it's been in since Cutler was QB, imo. You can never know for sure until they play together but barring injury it's greatly improved.

 

[DefNextYear]

Pretty highly confident other than depth and health. If we assumed everyone was perfectly healthy, I'm sure they'd be a vastly different unit and perform above average. That said, there are questions about the ability at LT. Braxton is hurt, and Kiran is a big unknown. The other risk to me is Jackson given his recent history. The slightly lesser risk is Dalman with his missed time over the past years. I'm less concerned with him though cause his injury was a high ankle sprain and I would expect no lingering effects there. If I could guarantee Jackson stays healthy, then I could live with the question at LT and feel pretty good. For now, I'll just have to be cautiously optimistic.

 

[msadows]

Honestly, even with last years oline if they had ben johnson and this coaching staff the offense would have looked much better

A large part of the issues last year was not just talent on the oline, but also coaching and scheme. Looked like a lot of guys were lost and confused all the time in the blocking.

Also, the idiot former OC would have 3 guys running the same route. If ben johnson see's that the tackle is getting worked i have 100% faith he will call a quick slant to loveland or burden to counter.

 

[Toast88]

Better. Still not great, but I'm glad they've improved.

Braxton Jones
I'm just not a fan. Seems slow to react, and I got tired of just seeing him get turnstyled and bull-rushed time and time again. Even if you're up against a better player, you gotta find ways to cope. He didn't. At all. Serviceable-to-good against guys who aren't as good as him, which, well, duh.

Darnell Wright
Great piece now and into the future. Will be a solid-to-very-good starting tackle for many years to come.

Joe Thuney
One of the best in the league. Sure, he's on the wrong side of 30 and you always then wonder about stability and falloff, but we've seen plenty of linemen stay solid well into their 30s, so I'm really not concerned about him.

Jonah Jackson
First three years in the league, awesome. Almost no time missed. One of the better players at his position, seemingly yet to reach his ceiling. Then a really bad injury that he then re-injured right after coming back, then got benched. Can he become the guy he was two years ago? That's not usually how it works in professional sports, but he'll be a really good piece if he somehow bucks that trend.

Drew Dalman
Really good when healthy both in the pass & running games. Still young and hasn't hit his prime (injury depending). Had a really bad high ankle sprain that sidelined him half of last year.

The Bears are really banking on badly-injured players not getting re-injured this year, which rarely works out. But I can't fault the thought process of rolling the dice on guys who are otherwise pretty damn good. And I will say that with guys like Jackson and Dalman, it's not like they're chronically injured. They're just recently injured, which is still concerning but not deal-breaking.

They're also banking on Braxton Jones being a guy I just don't believe he is. I wouldn't be as bear-ish on this o-line if Jones played literally any other line position.

 

[cameronkrazie86]

Health is still my biggest concern. Thuney has been awesome for his career, super excited for him. I'm hopeful Jackson rebounds from a down season. Hoping Dalman has center locked down for the foreseeable future. Health wise, I'm worried 5/5 positions due to age and previous injuries. I don't think the backups are any good (Murray was the only one who looked ok last year but even he is coming off an injury) so worried 1 injury will derail everything again (probably PTSD talking). Got no clue on if the OT drafted will be ready to play day 1 but it would be a major plus if he was. Fairly or not, I don't have any faith in OMGadjie, he didn't look like an NFL player last year. Who the hell knows about Bates? Seems like he was out with a new injury every 3-4 weeks.

I hope the line can stay healthy as I think they will be a strength if so. Just worried about if they can't based on the last several years of injuries starting in training camp and suddenly, you're deep into backups by week 4.

 

[PrideisBears]

Caleb is going to make the line better by getting the ball out faster and giving up on plays early!

 

[NCChiFan]

Improved for sure. Lets hope it is enough. Won't know until we see action.

 

[Moses Moreno]

The same people that defended the OLine as good with stats and pff rankings during the Justin Fields debate are the same experts that will say Poles neglected the OLine & trenches this offseason.

The OLine is currently in the best shape it's been in since Cutler was QB, imo. You can never know for sure until they play together but barring injury it's greatly improved.

2018 was fine and significantly better than this year.

To answer the OP question - zero faith. I don't trust the depth and think we're assuming health from a guy who the Rams wanted nothing to do with after paying him a ton of money and a guy who's going to be on the wrong side of 33 when the season starts.

The rookie/Kiran I have zero faith in because outside of a good pick in Jones and a solid pick in Wright - everything else they've scouted in the past 3 years has been trash. Dalman most likely will be a decent starter but not a huge difference maker which is a major improvement over what they've had.

 

[SlickWilly]

2018 was fine and significantly better than this year.

To answer the OP question - zero faith. I don't trust the depth and think we're assuming health from a guy who the Rams wanted nothing to do with after paying him a ton of money and a guy who's going to be on the wrong side of 33 when the season starts.

The rookie/Kiran I have zero faith in because outside of a good pick in Jones and a solid pick in Wright - everything else they've scouted in the past 3 years has been trash. Dalman most likely will be a decent starter but not a huge difference maker which is a major improvement over what they've had.

The 2018 O-line is significantly better than the 2025 O-line that hasn't played a down yet.

 

[Szlachcic]

My hunch is that Ozzy Trapilo will play LT if Braxton is not available. The OL always can be improved , but as of now its play should be better considering BJohnson overseeing it..

 

[Xplosive]

2018 was fine and significantly better than this year.

To answer the OP question - zero faith. I don't trust the depth and think we're assuming health from a guy who the Rams wanted nothing to do with after paying him a ton of money and a guy who's going to be on the wrong side of 33 when the season starts.

The rookie/Kiran I have zero faith in because outside of a good pick in Jones and a solid pick in Wright - everything else they've scouted in the past 3 years has been trash. Dalman most likely will be a decent starter but not a huge difference maker which is a major improvement over what they've had.

Bobbie Massie - Kyle Long - Cody Whitehair - James Daniels - Charles Leno

was significantly better than 2025 lineup?

Srsly??



FYI...

The same Rams that wanted nothing to do with Coleman Shelton either and yet they resigned him as their starter at center this year. Not a good look.