Sunday’s matchup in Arizona will be yet another opportunity for a โ let’s be nice and call them sporadic โ Bears offensive line to take advantage of a Cardinals defensive line that’s struggled at times this year.
Sure, it looks as if Larry Borom will get the start at left tackle with both Braxton Jones and Kiran Amegadjie on the injury report, but honestly, I don’t think that should even matter.
Coming into the 2024 season, Arizona knew its defensive line would be an issue. The Cardinals made an attempt to bolster their defensive front in April’s NFL Draft when they selected edge rusher Darius Robinson out of Missouri, but he’s spent the entirety of his rookie season (to this point) on IR. For what it’s worth, Robinson was activated from injured reserve this week. But it still seems likely that he won’t be ready to go by Sunday as he did not practice on Wednesday.
The Cardinals are a rebuilding team and you can only do so much in one offseason, but that has indeed proven to be their weakness. Will a (mostly) healthy Bears offensive line be able to take advantage?
Bears Projected Offensive Line
- Right Tackle: Darnell Wright
- Right Guard: Matt Pryor
- Center: Coleman Shelton
- Left Guard: Teven Jenkins (he’s on the injury report, but has practiced)
- Left Tackle: Larry Borom
Cardinals Projected Defensive Line
- Defensive End: Zaven Collins
- Defensive Tackle: Naquan Jones (Q)
- Defensive Tackle: Roy Lopez (Q)
- Defensive End: L.J. Collier
- Defensive Tackle: Khyris Tonga
- Defensive End: Dante Stills
- Defensive End: Victor Dimukeje
- Injured: Darius Robinson (Q), Bilal Nichols (IR), Justin Jones (IR), BJ Ojulari (IR)
The Matchup
As you can see from the depth chart above, the Cardinals are already suffering from some depth issues. So while the Bears will be working on getting Larry Borom (most likely) back up to game speed, and if you’re going to have to worry about that a banged-up and struggling group is an ideal opponent for a new offensive lineman to hit the ground running.
The rest of the Bears group looks healthy enough, though. Left guard Teven Jenkins did miss part of the Commanders game and was limited in practice on Wednesday, so I would expect that means he’ll be available. If that’s the case, Chicago will have four of its five starters ready to go.
In addition to being relatively healthy, two of the five linemen expected to anchor the group when the season started have begun rounding into form. Teven Jenkins ranked as PFF’s top guard in all of the NFL in Week 8 (albeit in limited action).
Right tackle Darnell Wright is also starting to get it together after a slow start. He now has the 13th-best run grade among offensive tackles at Pro Football Focus and ranks as the 28th-best overall among tackles. While we hope for him to be better than a middle-of-the-road tackle, the fact that he is where he is despite a rough first few weeks is a credit to how much better he’s been as of late.
While the Bears have their OL anchors playing better, Arizona’s defensive line is struggling to get to the passer and against the run. According to ESPN’s pass rush, run stop, and blocking win rate data, Arizona ranks 26th in Run Stop Win Rate and 32nd in Pass Rush Win Rate. In addition, the Cardinals rank 27th in the NFL averaging just 1.9 sacks per game โ and those numbers are even skewed a bit by a five-sack performance in Week 2. In three of their last five games, the Cards have sacked the quarterback one or fewer times.
This needs to be a get-right spot for Chicago’s offensive line. The run blocking has been getting much better for the Bears, but pass protection (while Jenkins & Wright have been better individually) as a unit needs to get back on track.
Leading into the bye week, they had been playing some good football and trending in the right direction. I wouldn’t say the Commanders’s game was a giant step back, but it certainly wasn’t a step forward either.
The Cardinals, by all metrics, are one of the worst pass-rushing defenses in football, but this is still the NFL. Arizona is probably looking at a Bears offensive line without its starting left tackle as a get-right spot too. This is a matchup Chicago should win, and if they don’t, it might mean an addition by Ryan Poles at next week’s trade deadline.