NEWSLETTER
The Bears were met with a 3rd-and-2 situation with 1:44 left in the fourth quarter against the Panthers on Sunday. A third-down conversion would have forced Carolina to use its final timeout, and more importantly, would have essentially iced a win for Chicago. Instead, the Bears threw a short pass to Allen Robinson. It fell incomplete, forcing the Bears to punt it away and lean on the defense (again) to finish the job.
That sequence of events tells us everything we need to know about how Head Coach Matt Nagy feels about the current state of the offensive line. All while not saying it with words.
Chicago’s offensive line is in a trouble spot right now. It started off well enough with the group knocking dudes around in Week 1 and earning recognition from Pro Football Focus as the 11th best line in the league entering Week 4. But things have taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks.
The unit’s struggles were on display against the Colts and Buccaneers (though, to be fair, both teams are strong on the defensive side at the point of attack). I could write off some of those struggles as being outplayed by a superior group. However, I cannot do the same after playing the Panthers.
Overall, the Bears’ offensive line is … meh. Don’t get me wrong. Average isn’t bad. But it isn’t good enough when better is needed. A team that is 5-1 with championship aspirations should aspire to be better than average. I’m not asking for them to turn into the mid-90’s Cowboys overnight. But they just need to be a notch better than what they are right now. This shouldn’t reviewed as a big ask.
PFF grades tackles Bobby Massie (29th) and Charles Leno Jr. (39th) among the 40 best among the 76 qualifiers at the position. But middling won’t cut it then both were in the top-30 as recently as two weeks ago. Cody Whitehair has dropped from ninth to 16th in PFF’s rankings. And somehow, Germain Ifedi is PFF’s Bears’ best lineman. Ifedi is the site’s 20th best guard, which is a nod to the front office for its scout job. However, collectively, this group ain’t it.
Hence, our insistence that recently released free agent Quinton Spain is exactly who the Bears need to be jumping on as soon as possible. Thankfully, Cordarrelle Patterson is on the case.
