Complete Chicago Bears 2017 53-man roster predictions

Offensive Line

Starters: Charles Leno, Kyle Long, Cody Whitehair, Josh Sitton and Bobby Massie

Backups: Tom Compton and Hroniss Grasu

Barring injury, the Chicago Bears starting offensive line is pretty obvious. Kyle Long, Cody Whitehair and Josh Sitton make up one of the premier interior offensive lines in the entire game. That trio will likely be elite both in pass protection and opening up holes in the run game. Injuries are the only concern there.

The Bears’ starting offensive tackles are just as obvious, but they do not bring the same kind of confidence. Charles Leno will start at left tackle. Leno moves well for an offensive lineman and that helps him be a strong pass protector. However, his run blocking is an issue. Leno is a solid blind side protector and that is what is most important at left tackle, but he needs to improve his run blocking prowess if he is going to be a long-term option for the Bears.

Bobby Massie will start opposite of Leno at right tackle. Massie has the exact opposite issue. In the run game, he is pretty solid. However, his pass protection skills are ugly. Massie gets beat by speed on the outside on a consistent basis and that will be a major issue with the less than mobile Mike Glennon under center.

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Not a terrible starting offensive line, but there are some holes. Also, the Bears have an extreme lack of depth up front. Tom Compton will likely win the backup offensive tackle job of Bradley Sowell. Similar to Massie, Compton is a powerful run blocker with obvious pass protection issues.

As soon as Eric Kush went down with a season-ending injury, Hroniss Grasu seemed like a fair bet to make the 53-man roster to start the season. Grasu was a third-round pick in 2015 who showed some promise as a rookie at the center position. However, he suffered a torn ACL last season and missed the entire year. Cody Whitehair was brilliant as the Bears’ center last season and has locked that job down for the foreseeable future.

However, Grasu still has value to this team as a backup center. If Long or Sitton miss time with injuries, Whitehair could move out to guard and Grasu would be a worthy starting center. He will make this team.

I wanted to find another offensive lineman for the Bears, but honestly, I don’t see what adding someone like Taylor Boggs or William Poehls really does for this roster. It would make more sense to add depth at another position and attack the waiver wire if an injury situation comes up during the season.

We have seen very little out of fifth-round rookie offensive lineman Jordan Morgan and it seems likely that the Bears will try to sneak him on the practice squad.