Bears gearing up for competition at right guard

[soulman]

Bears gearing up for competition at right guard

ByZack Pearson Aug 12, 10:00 AM https://247sports.com/nfl/chicago-bears/Article/Chicago-Bears-gearing-up-for-competition-at-right-guard-150012010/?utm_source=247Sports%2520Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=200814_113956_ChicagoBears&utm_content=Link

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(Photo: Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire, Getty)

CHICAGO, Ill. — One unit that needs to improve in 2020 for the Chicago Bears is the offensive line and if it does, it should lead to more success on offense for the franchise. After the entire offense struggled in 2019, Matt Nagy made the decision to fire a few coaches on his staff including offensive line coach Harry Hiestand.

The Bears replaced Hiestand with veteran coach Juan Castillo who coaches more to the style of Nagy with his run schemes. Castillo loves athletic offensive linemen that can get out to that second level and move around well in run blocking. While improvement is needed from the offensive line as a whole, the Bears are bringing back four of the five starters from a year ago with the only open spot will be at right guard as Kyle Long decided to retire in the offseason.

As the Bears get set for training camp next week, eyes will be on that right guard spot which is a battle between free-agent signing Germain Ifedi, former defensive tackle Rashaad Coward, and 2019 undrafted rookie Alex Bars. But this race may just be down to two guys as Nagy hinted.

"In regards to the right guard position with Ifedi and Rashaad Coward, those guys are a little bit, meaning the vets, are a few days behind so they’re still getting ramped up in the lifting and conditioning," Nagy said. "We’re meeting and doing our installs and we take it to the class on the grass, the walkthroughs, and literally what they’re doing is breaking the huddle and going through their assignments. We just see that as a competition where you got a guy with a lot of experience in Germain Ifedi versus a guy with not as much experience, but two really good guys that we have a lot of belief in with an offensive line coach in Juan Castillo that believes heavily in both of them. Competition across the board and I just think for them, just like other positions, we gotta be really detailed with how we give reps and with how we evaluate that position."

One name he didn't mention is Alex Bars, a former Notre Dame standout who is going into his second season. Bars was barely active last season, spending most of the time on the practice squad, and even when he was active he didn't play. It could be that Bars is a Hiestand product and not a guy that fits what Castillo and Nagy want to do. That doesn't necessarily rule Bars out of the competition but it sure as heck sounds like he has a major uphill battle to climb if he wants to not only win the starting job but a roster spot as well.

As mentioned above, Castillo wants his offensive linemen to be more athletic as well as powerful to fill what the Bears want to do in their scheme. Guys that can get to that second level and open up holes inside the tackles and to the right side is the goal. Last season the Bears really struggled running the football overall but they averaged just 2.3 yards per carry off right tackle, 3.7 yards per carry over the right guard and 3.8 yards per carry over the left guard per Sharp Football. Those numbers were a little higher off the left tackle (4.2 yards per carry), and up the middle (3.9 yards per carry). To add to those numbers, the Bears rushed over the left guard 59 times, over center 59 times and over the right guard 58 times last season, compared to 49 over the left tackle and 38 over the right tackle.

But do any of the three or more importantly, Ifedi or Coward fit that mold?

Ifedi joins the competition after spending the first four seasons of his career in Seattle. He played both tackle and guard at times with the Seahawks but had his fair share of struggles at both positions. A change of scenery could be just what he needs to get his career on track and the Bears might benefit from that.

"We have the same plays basically that Seattle does, Seattle has some of the same plays we have but it comes back and I think the important thing with Germain it comes back to fundamentals," Castillo said. "And that's part of the reason I think that he came here with us is that he wants to improve those fundamentals you know there's things that we're working on. In pass protection he's trying to stay square, he's done a great job at home, I have to say this, all the guys have worked their buts off, they look good right now."

Coward has some experience in this offense, converting over to the offensive line after being a defensive tackle for all of his college career. He appeared in 13 total games in 2019, starting 10 of those as the Bears faced some injuries at the position. However, Coward was never really that impressive and didn't do enough for the Bears to feel comfortable about him starting at right guard. In Castillo's short time with the team, he's been impressed with Coward.

"The thing about Coward is he had a great spring. He's really worked hard. He's about 320 pounds. He's a good athlete," Castillo said. "But not just that. When him and I have talked about some of the fundamentals about what I keep saying about doing something over and over, what he's done is he's gone out and he's worked those fundamentals and he's done them over and over. If you were able to see what he looked like right now, you could see that, wow, he's playing square, his footwork is more consistent, which are things that help you be a better player. I'm really excited about him because he's an athlete, because he's tough and physical, and because he finishes."

So far, Castillo has had to focus on the fundamentals and getting that right before they put on the pads. 

 "Here's the thing that's important with that is that in every scheme whether it's the run game or the pass pro game what's really important are rules. So right what we're really working on is I'm trying to teach our players the rules without looking at all the fronts," Castillo said. "When you're able to break down and give the guys a rule then it doesn't matter what front is put in front of them then they'll understand where to go. And I think that's the first job. Same thing in the protection. Then the next part is just working the pure fundamentals. If we can improve on those things and I know you hear me say, dang, that's all he's talking about. Well, those are the fundamentals that you work on in individual and practice and stuff."

With this battle seemingly being between Ifedi and Coward for now, Castillo thinks the Bears have two solid options to be the starter. It's clear that Castillo knows what he wants in his starting right guard for the upcoming season and has his two candidates with the shot at winning the job. However, no matter who wins the job, they have to show that they are the answer and can help turn this thing around. Either way, this right guard competition will be a big one to watch and Castillo is fired up about it.

"I think it's going to be a great competition," Castillo said. "I'm excited what that right guard position's gonna be like."

Let's just hope they get it right.

[JAF-N72EX]

This has to be Ifedi's job to lose. I can't imagine Castillo even considering Coward after watching last year's play.  

[soulman]

Meh, I wouldn't put much stock in that just yet.  Remember the kid spent his college career as a DT then got moved to OT when he came to Chicago in 2018.  Then we moved him to RG and with no previous starting experience even at OT he had to replace Long.  That was a lot to ask of a higher draft pick who'd played OL his entire college career and Coward was an UDFA who was a college DT.  He's still learning OL fundamentals.

It does sound like Bars may be an odd man out though.  At best he's now 3rd on the depth chart at RG and we signed Spriggs to compete at RT so he'd be 3rd on the depth chart there as well.  And we're getting a pretty good picture of what Castillo wants out of his OL.  Big, tough, athletic with a bit of a mean streak.

And speaking of Spriggs IIRC he was a kid Pace had targeted in the 2016.  GB jumped in front of us and took him so Pace traded back eventual drafting Whitehair.  Maybe it's just blind dumb luck but whereas Spriggs has had injury issues and never panned out in GB in Whitehair we have a Pro Bowl level OL.  If we'd have drafted Spriggs instead he'd be one more 2nd round draft failure the Pace boo bird would be complaining about.

[JAF-N72EX]

28 minutes ago, soulman said:

Meh, I wouldn't put much stock in that just yet.  Remember the kid spent his college career as a DT then got moved to OT when he came to Chicago in 2018.  Then we moved him to RG and with no previous starting experience even at OT he had to replace Long.  That was a lot to ask of a higher draft pick who'd played OL his entire college career and Coward was an UDFA who was a college DT.  He's still learning OL fundamentals.

It does sound like Bars may be an odd man out though.  At best he's now 3rd on the depth chart at RG and we signed Spriggs to compete at RT so he'd be 3rd on the depth chart there as well.  And we're getting a pretty good picture of what Castillo wants out of his OL.  Big, tough, athletic with a bit of a mean streak.

And speaking of Spriggs IIRC he was a kid Pace had targeted in the 2016.  GB jumped in front of us and took him so Pace traded back eventual drafting Whitehair.  Maybe it's just blind dumb luck but whereas Spriggs has had injury issues and never panned out in GB in Whitehair we have a Pro Bowl level OL.  If we'd have drafted Spriggs instead he'd be one more 2nd round draft failure the Pace boo bird would be complaining about.

I get your point that he doesn't have much experience and is still learning but he was god awful last season. He was missing routine blocks, he can't read defenses, he's too slow of the snap, he has poor footwork that would lead to him being unbalanced and losing his center of gravity....it was terrible. 

I'm just not sure how any OL coach could look at his tape and see enough potential there to spend much time on developing him as a starter. 

And I hope we don't have to rely on Spriggs either. He is also absolutely terrible, even when he is healthy. Albeit, that was at RT and not at RG, so there may be something left to salvage but I'm not expecting much. I have little faith in him even being on the roster by mid-season.

Right now, the depth at OL looks ugly. But like Nagy says "the team who stays the healthiest....". Which is true.  

Edited August 15, 2020 by JAF-N72EX

[WindyCity]

Coward was really bad last season. His technique was bad even for a recent convert.

Ifedi will be your RG. 
 

I am more intrigued by Simmons than I am by Coward

[soulman]

Yet at this point in time Castillo is impressed with how well Coward has developed his technique and happy to have Spriggs.  So maybe we have an OL coach whose better at recognizing and developing young talent than others.  I don't really know but we'll soon enough find out.

Let's face it.  To a degree the OL is somewhat like the DL and OLB were a few years ago when we lacked the cap to make a play for pricier FA and we had so many needs our draft picks were spread all over the place.  Provide we've finally stabilized other positions like WR, TE, and RB maybe Pace can finally focus on drafting more OL higher and we can replace Massie and Leno at OT with some younger talent.  But were still not anywhere near as bad off as we were back in the days of JWebb, CWill, Carimi and Ohmygod.

Those are the OTs Cutler had to deal with.

[JAF-N72EX]

54 minutes ago, WindyCity said:

I am more intrigued by Simmons than I am by Coward

Are you just saying this in jest? Real question(s). What makes you say that? Have you spent any time watching him? And if so, what did you take away from it? 

I'm really asking because I personally haven't even taken the time to bother watching him at all.

52 minutes ago, soulman said:

Yet at this point in time Castillo is impressed with how well Coward has developed his technique and happy to have Spriggs.  So maybe we have an OL coach whose better at recognizing and developing young talent than others.  I don't really know but we'll soon enough find out.

But let's be honest here man. Is any coach just gonna come out and blatantly say "this player sucks but I have to work with what I got?" I mean we heard the spiel about Chris Williams and Carimi too. 

58 minutes ago, soulman said:

Let's face it.  To a degree the OL is somewhat like the DL and OLB were a few years ago when we lacked the cap to make a play for pricier FA and we had so many needs our draft picks were spread all over the place.  Provide we've finally stabilized other positions like WR, TE, and RB maybe Pace can finally focus on drafting more OL higher and we can replace Massie and Leno at OT with some younger talent.  But were still not anywhere near as bad off as we were back in the days of JWebb, CWill, Carimi and Ohmygod.

Those are the OTs Cutler had to deal with.

I agree with both of these statements, and I would get more into this but I'm trying to keep this thread strictly about the topic at hand which is the RG position.

Maybe if I have time I'll do a breakdown of Coward's play from the last 2 season's. I would try to compare him to Ifedi and Spriggs but those two haven't spent much time at RG position so it wouldn't really be fair either. 

[WindyCity]

Simmons has incredible size, length, and power. The problem is in the pass game there isn’t a lot to go on because Tennessee State runs way more.

He has a ton of physical tools. I posted some Twitter clips after the draft that I will see if I can dig up.

Coward was very bad last year. The natural athletic ability and power did not translate to the field.

[WindyCity]

Simmons has some serious gas in the run game

[soulman]

13 hours ago, JAF-N72EX said:

14 hours ago, soulman said:

Yet at this point in time Castillo is impressed with how well Coward has developed his technique and happy to have Spriggs.  So maybe we have an OL coach whose better at recognizing and developing young talent than others.  I don't really know but we'll soon enough find out.

But let's be honest here man. Is any coach just gonna come out and blatantly say "this player sucks but I have to work with what I got?" I mean we heard the spiel about Chris Williams and Carimi too. 

14 hours ago, soulman said:

Let's face it.  To a degree the OL is somewhat like the DL and OLB were a few years ago when we lacked the cap to make a play for pricier FA and we had so many needs our draft picks were spread all over the place.  Provide we've finally stabilized other positions like WR, TE, and RB maybe Pace can finally focus on drafting more OL higher and we can replace Massie and Leno at OT with some younger talent.  But were still not anywhere near as bad off as we were back in the days of JWebb, CWill, Carimi and Ohmygod.

Those are the OTs Cutler had to deal with.

I agree with both of these statements, and I would get more into this but I'm trying to keep this thread strictly about the topic at hand which is the RG position.

Maybe if I have time I'll do a breakdown of Coward's play from the last 2 season's. I would try to compare him to Ifedi and Spriggs but those two haven't spent much time at RG position so it wouldn't really be fair either. 

No, I don't expect him to say "this guy sucks" "he's just camp fodder" but rather that he wouldn't be mentioned at all just as Bars isn't mentioned at all.  But is still early.  They haven't even been in pads yet so know one can know much about any of the suspects until that happens including Castillo.

The bottom line here is that both Ifedi and Spriggs are two of Castillo's "reclamation projects" while Coward is more like raw modeling clay he may or may not be able to make something out of.  As it stands I believe Ifedi and Coward will compete for RG and Spriggs is basically gonna be a swing OL on the right side.  The bigger question may be who backs up Leno at LT?

We have have another half dozen or so suspects in camp including two 7th rounders who'll be looking for roster spots or the PS so help could come from there as well.