Chicago Bears: A lot to consider with James Daniels extension talk

The Chicago Bears’ offensive line has been a focal point of conversation throughout their discourse. Yet, that discussion seems to exclude fourth-year pro, James Daniels. Everyone knows that the offensive line as a whole has struggled with health and overall performance. Daniels is seen as one of the stronger links of that chain. Therefore, he doesn’t bear the brunt of much criticism that the o-line often receives.

Daniels’s performance should be talked about much more, considering he is entering the last year of his contract with ten other starters. Many fans think he deserves to be brought back without having any hard evidence to make his case.

The difficult part of building that case is that there really isn’t an attainable stat to refer to to get the full picture of how offensive linemen perform. There are numbers like blocking grades, run/pass blocking win rate, pressures allowed, etc., yet even those can vary and fail to paint the full picture.

The Chicago Bears are hoping that James Daniels makes an impact in 2021.

In order to get a well-rounded understanding of how an offensive lineman is playing, you must go through the tape and evaluate them with your own eyes. Those other stats can help fill in the gaps but the film is the meat and potatoes of the evaluation.

That said, I dove into the film to get to the bottom of how Daniels has faired out. In hopes of answering the million-dollar question (pun intended) on whether he deserves a contract extension or not.