Chicago Bears: Positive COVID test causes panic for offensive line

The Chicago Bears offensive line is already missing three of its five starters, and with backup Jason Spriggs testing positive for COVID-19, the team is in trouble.

The Chicago Bears offensive line has struggled mightily throughout the first eight weeks of the NFL season, and that was before losing James Daniels for the season, Cody Whitehair for a few weeks, and now Bobby Massie for at least a month.

Now with Jason Spriggs receiving a postive test for the coronavirus, Germain Ifedi had to be placed on the COVID reserve list, due to close contact with Spriggs. The Bears offensive line, if Ifedi does not get cleared from the reserve list, would be missing four of its five week one starters.

This could force the team to bring players up from the practice squad and start rookie Arlington Hambright. With this, their O-line could look like this when they travel to Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee to take on the Titans:

Left tackle – Charles Leno

Left guard – Alex Bars

Center – Sam Mustipher

Right guard – Arlington Hambright

Right tackle – Rashaad Coward

This situation has only made Ryan Pace look even worse to Bears fans. Quinton Spain, released by the Bills on October 21st, was available to sign, even after Cody Whitehair got hurt, and well after James Daniels was lost for the year. However, Pace never picked up the phone to bring him in, and the Bengals swooped on by and took him.

Along with making no moves at or around today’s NFL trade deadline, Pace completely failed to get solid depth for this offensive line, instead relying on the practice squad, which the team had to utilize due to these circumstances surround Spriggs.

According to Larry Mayer, the team “promoted Lachavious Simmons from the practice squad to the active roster, and signed Aaron Neary to the practice squad.”

Simmons, an offensive tackle who played at Tennessee State, was selected 227th overall in the 2020 NFL draft. At Tennessee State, Simmons played both left guard and left tackle, and helped  the Tigers offense average over 400 yards per game in 2019.

It remains to be seen whether or not Simmons will start on Sunday, but regardless, the Bears offensive line has already lost several pieces of their blockers up front. Fortunately for the Bears, the Titans defense gives up a whopping 4.7 yards per carry against opposing offenses, but the Bears rank 29th in rushing yards per carry, and this certainly does not help.