Chicago Bears: 3 ways to fix the offensive line problems

Swap James Daniels and Cody Whitehair Back

Listen, I will be the first to admit I thought the Chicago Bears made the right decision swapping James Daniels and Cody Whitehair to their natural positions this offseason. Cody Whitehair was never supposed to be a starting center in the NFL, but injuries and the lack of development by Hroniss Grasu forced him to move into that position his rookie season.

James Daniels was a center at Iowa and many thought he would maintain that position going into the NFL. However, Daniels worked his way into the starting offensive guard spot around the midway point in 2018. Switching Whitehair from center to guard and placing Daniels in at center in 2018 did not make sense. However, doing that swap in the offseason made perfect sense.

The problem is, this offensive line looks nothing compared to the 2018 unit. If you remember when Olin Kreutz was with the team, he was the anchor of the line. He called out assignments and blitzes. He set the tone sort-of-speak for the entire offensive line. Watching the first five weeks of the season, it does not seem that Daniels has that ability. Whitehair might be the better option.

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According to Football Outsiders, the ChicagoBears are ranked 24th overall in run blocking, but 31st overall in power run blocking. This is why they continuously struggle to gain one or two yards needed in short-yardage situations. Playcalling has been suspect too, but is that because Nagy cannot trust his offensive line to create any push up front? We have seen this since Week 1 versus the Packers.

The team is slightly better in pass protection, but they might be helped by Mitchell Trubisky‘s escapability. As of now, the team has allowed nine sacks on the season. That is one less than the NFL average of 10. This puts the Chicago Bears ranked 16th overall in pass protection.

If we go back to the 2018 season, the unit was shockingly not as good as I thought. Football Outsiders had them ranked 28th overall in run blocking. Where they were more successful was with their power blocking. They finished 18th overall in that area. Could Jordan Howard be the reason why though? Personally, I do not believe that to be the case.

The team really excelled in pass blocking though. They finished seventh overall in pass blocking and allowed a total of 33 sacks on the season. If the offense cannot find time to throw, they will never be able to establish a consistent rhythm. This is where Matt Nagy can help out though with his play calling.