With the smoke finally cleared from the Detroit drubbing, there is 1 result of the game that I want to take a closer look at - how the Bears have to approach OT in the offseason. Many have already been pounding the table for an upgrade at LT, and it was probably close to unanimous that the team needed to replace their swing tackle (Borom) with a much better player, but having 2 healthy starters that were at least at the Mendoza line for acceptable play gave the team some flexibility with how they approached finding OT in the offseason. That may no longer be the case.
What the Bears currently have under contract for '25:
* Darnell Wright - 10th overall pick going into his 3rd season, you would be crazy not to assume he has the starting RT job
* Kiran Amegadjie - 3rd round project pick that should have been red-shirted if you draft him, but given the tape he has shown you cant pencil in as OT3 next season.
* Braxton Jones - This is ultimately the crux of my post. Jones is an agile OT who has so far had a bad anchor. While ideally the team could upgrade him, he at least provides a baseline of play at the position you could live with. He would have brought the flexibility to ease a rookie OT in, maybe a 2nd or 3rd round pick starts as OT3 but with a chance to win the job when Jones misses a few games (seems like a certainty) and we need the swingtackle to come in.
But after his injury yesterday, that may no longer be the case. We'll know more going forward, but cant help but notice the pop and immediate buckle before the awkward fall on the damaged leg. Google says the
speculated injury here has a 6-12 month recovery which means best case scenario Jones is probably missing camp and coming into the season with a lower body injury on a player who struggled with his anchor before the injury, and when was the last time a Bears player had an ideal return from serious injury? Hes probably dead, knowing the Bears luck.
Assuming Jones injury is worst case scenario, that means Bears need to find a day 1 starter at LT and a swing tackle to boot. So lets take a look at the likely places to get those:
FREE AGENCY
This is not a good year for OTs in Free Agency, I think there rarely are good years and '25 sure as shit aint one. Lets take a look at some that are available
as of now - really important caveat.
* Ronnie Stanley - Easily the best of the bunch, BALs current starter. He has been a good pass protector for pretty much his entire career and has only given up 2 sacks and 4 QB hits in 520 pass snaps, and he also has a QB that likes to run around like an idiot (similar to what he might expect in Chicago). If he hits FA he's probably going to get $20-25M a year, but BAL is likely to do everything they can to keep him.
* Garrett Bolles - He has only given up 1 sack and 2 qb hits in 597 snaps, he would be another good starter option. Just kidding,
DEN extended him to the tune of 4 years - $82M. Get cucked and fucked, other teams.
* Cam Robinson - He has given up 6 sacks and and 6 hits in 538 snaps, so statistically a big step down from the above 2. Salary projections so far are $18M+ for 3-4 years, woof.
* Morgan Moses - 34 year old RT, hasnt been the worst and he at least is currently starting.
* Jedrick Willis - 1st round pick in 2020 that has had 2 consecutive years with significant knee injuries and hasnt shown a high level of play when he was "healthy".
* Tyron Smith - 35 year old LT coming off what is likely a season ending neck injury.
Not a lot of good options for a team who needs a LT ready to start day 1. So what does the draft provide?
Tackle Prospects in the Draft
Here's a list of the OT prospects, I like Draft Buzz because they do the comparison of where players are ranked/rated on their peers sites as well (dont just take their word for it these guys miss a ton). This is very much a WIP, at the bare minimum you can expect significant shakeup after the combine and there's probably going to be movement before then as well.
Most sites ive read have Milum and Savaiinaea as Gs in the NFL, but given the Bears are likely to be picking high its likely they will have a shot at one of the top 2 OTs in the draft. Im no CFB expert and have no idea how these OTs look beyond the 2-3 games I see and what i read in pre-draft content, but it seems likely the 2nd OT would not be the best player available when the Bears draft (OT1 might be though). I'm a bit reluctant to write this into existence, but I'm getting a bit of a "time is a flat circle" vibe from this offseason where the Bears may have to pass on a super talented and disruptive DLineman to take the OT2 who ends up being OK/fine/not bad.
For CCS members who follow the college game more closely or know of vet options that im missing, what do you have to add to the conversation?
