This Should Be Tacked To The Wall Of The OL Room.....

[soulman]

Beating Down Bears Offensive Linemen

Originally posted on FanNation Bear Digest
By Gene Chamberlain  |  Last updated 7/16/21

https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/beating_down_bears_offensive_linemen/s1_16634_35390921?utm_source=mb&utm_medium=email&mb_edition=20210717&mb_loc=right_h

 

Apparently the Bears offensive line must hope the sum of the parts is greater than the individual players.

The offensive line has been given a major slap in the face by Pro Football Focus in preseason assessment while ESPN.com did them no real favors, either.

Pro Football Focus ranked the top 32 players at each position in the league and the Bears had only two offensive linemen who rated in the top 32. Only one of those rankings could have been considered a compliment and it's for a player who has never even played his position in the past.

Bears guard James Daniels was ranked the 23rd best guard by PFF, which sounds like he's at least in the top half of the league. However, he's playing this year at a position he's never played, right guard.

Talking about Daniels' play last year, PFF said "Chicago's offensive line fell to pieces in 2020 and it was dragging the play of Daniels down with it before injury added to its toll, as well."

This might be one of the least informed of many out-of-town stupid comments PFF has ever made.

Daniels went out for the year in the fifth game of the year. The offense was cruising then compared to what happened after his injury and others. The line play didn't drag down Daniels' play at all in the first five games. When Daniels went out, the Bears were 4-1 on the year. They came back with a win the week after Daniels left, as well.

 

It was after Week 5 when the disaster of COVID-19 and injuries really took a toll. By then, Daniels was long gone.

It's good for the Bears at least that Daniels is regarded this high. However, it's uncertain where all this love for Daniels is coming from because they've never given him an overall grade higher than 69.9 (2019). Last year they had him at 65.8, which was barely above where they had Germain Ifedi (65.5).

That was the good news.

The bad news for the Bears was they didn't have Cody Whitehair ranked in the top 32 at guard.

They also have rated Sam Mustipher as the 28th best center. Considering there are only 32 starting centers, this would not be a compliment.

Neither of their tackles, rookie Teven Jenkins nor Ifedi, were in the top 32, either.

 

The slam by ESPN was from Seth Walder when he did the annual pass block win rate travesty. It's an undependable metric at best.

They projected the Bears at 57% or 19th overall. Actually, 19th isn't too bad considering the changes they've made on the line and taking into account that last year they finished tied for 17th/18th in sacks allowed anyway.

They had Mustipher ranked 30th and when Whitehair played center he was ranked 28th. Ifedi was 62nd last year among their guards, but isn't a guard. With Jenkins thrown into the mix, how they've come up with a percentage or grade at all is uncertain at best. It's a total guess.

Pass block or pass rush win rate are metrics few in Chicago will pay much attention to now after it was claimed Robert Quinn was the best in the league at pass rush win rate, and he came to Chicago and produced two sacks.

The only certainty for this season from all of the critiques and analysis is the Bears offensive line has plenty of incentive from all of the slights they've received this offseason.

Incentive doesn't build wins, though. It only provides fuel.

 

This article first appeared on Bear Digest and was syndicated with permission.

[dll2000]

Its interesting that Bears O line “drove down the play of Daniels”, but didn’t drive down the play of other Bears Olinemen.  

That would only be true if other guys are getting whipped and I (as Daniels) was trying to block two guys to make up for it.

As an aside that does happen sometimes in the abstract, but as an OLinemen you should never try to do someone else’s job.  

One of things I always told my young olinemen was if you try to block two guys you will block none.

I see no evidence from 2020 that Daniels was trying to make up for other guys play and that is reason for his poor play.

I also highly, highly doubt there are 32 guards better than Whitehair.  I haven’t watched other 32 guys, but that just cannot be true with the poor O line play across the league.

I am not super high on Mustipher at this point, but given Bears improvement in 2020 when he moved to center I am fairly certain he is not the worst center in entire league all things considered.  

I think people continue to grossly underrate Ifedi nationally.   Not saying he is great or even really good at this point, but he is a better football player than people assume him to be which is really bad.   I think he is victim of a bad narrative coming from Seattle days and few people actually watch film closely to confirm their narratives.

I think its kind of funny that every player on Bears O line is underrated and Daniels is overrated, at least in my opinion.   And they continue to overrate Leno and Massie and what their losses mean to team.  Give me Jenkins, sight unseen, and Ifedi over Leno and Massie (in 2021 mind you) any day of week.  

They are just wrong on their evaluation of every single guy.  Again in my opinion which I think is correct.  

Its not a great O line, especially with a rookie LT, I am not hyping it.  But I like it a lot better than last two years and I like its direction.   I like their current coach a lot better than Harry.  He seems to know what he is doing at least.  

You finally have guys like Whitehair playing correct positions that they are more suited for.  

 

 

[Heinz D.]

On 7/17/2021 at 7:36 AM, soulman said:

Neither of their tackles, rookie Teven Jenkins nor Ifedi, were in the top 32, either.

Well, I mean, Jenkins hasn't even played a pre-season game yet. Hardly surprising he isn't ranked--especially when you take into account the bull**** narrative of him floating around certain parts of the football media...

[IotaNet]

2 hours ago, Heinz D. said:

Well, I mean, Jenkins hasn't even played a pre-season game yet. Hardly surprising he isn't ranked--especially when you take into account the bull**** narrative of him floating around certain parts of the football media...

What narrative is that? (No snark - sincerely asking.)

[Heinz D.]

1 hour ago, IotaNet said:

What narrative is that? (No snark - sincerely asking.)

Reporters and the like thinking that Jenkins is a RT, and will ALWAYS be a RT...because that's where he played at Oklahoma State, and therefore the Bears are making a mistake. Ignoring the scouting reports, the film, and the fact that Jenkins was a late bloomer who was actually scheduled to be the Cowboys LT his final year there--but injuries scuttled all that. It's a really lazy false narrative. If he'd been a more highly touted guy (and he would have been had he not been a late bloomer), then the false narrative wouldn't exist. It's just more football media nonsense, the sort which pops up from time to time. Kind of like how so many just KNEW Mahomes would bust, as he was a product of the Air Raid offense, and all that. 

[IotaNet]

3 minutes ago, Heinz D. said:

Reporters and the like thinking that Jenkins is a RT, and will ALWAYS be a RT...because that's where he played at Oklahoma State, and therefore the Bears are making a mistake. Ignoring the scouting reports, the film, and the fact that Jenkins was a late bloomer who was actually scheduled to be the Cowboys LT his final year there--but injuries scuttled all that. It's a really lazy false narrative. If he'd been a more highly touted guy (and he would have been had he not been a late bloomer), then the false narrative wouldn't exist. It's just more football media nonsense, the sort which pops up from time to time. Kind of like how so many just KNEW Mahomes would bust, as he was a product of the Air Raid offense, and all that. 

Gotcha. 

I believe that writers are suffering from the same thing all of us are - nothing substantive to discuss post-draft/pre-training camp. Therefore, they’re just throwing  out these hot takes and some of them find life. It’s amplified because of all the pseudo-journalist bloggers, many of whom don’t know their ear from a hole in the ground.

The season can’t start soon enough.