Bears' injury concerns against the Lions in Week 16 further show how bad the roster management has been with the offensive line
In case you've been living under a rock this season, the Chicago Bears' offensive line has been in a rough spot with no signs of getting any better with two games to go.The way this unit has been assembled this year has been an embarrassing mark for general manager Ryan Poles, who was tasked with […]
In case you've been living under a rock this season, the Chicago Bears' offensive line has been in a rough spot with no signs of getting any better with two games to go.
The way this unit has been assembled this year has been an embarrassing mark for general manager Ryan Poles, who was tasked with rebuilding the front in order to help protect quarterback Caleb Williams during his rookie season.
Entering Week 16's game against the Detroit Lions, Williams was easily the most sacked quarterback in the league and the beatings have long started to wear on him.
"Let's put it in this context," Williams said last week. "Say you get in three car accidents in a month, you're going to feel it. That's what a hit is in football. Getting hit, especially when you can't deliver a hit to somebody as in like run the ball, you take those over an amount of time and it builds up."
While the hits keep continuing to build up, the status of the offensive line continues to get even worse and it has nothing to do with the production on the field.
Entering Sunday's game against the Lions, the Bears listed two starters as questionable in left tackle Braxton Jones and left guard Teven Jenkins. Both players managed to suit up but soon were forced to leave the field.
Jenkins was the first to leave the game in the second quarter with with the same calf injury that plagued him all week. Later on that same drive, Jones suffered a scary looking ankle injury and was quickly after ruled out for the remainder of the game.
"It's tough when you lose two of your starters that's been your starters for the whole season," Williams said after the game. "It's tough but we got to find ways, it's a part of football… We got to find ways to have that next guy up and go in and execute."
Williams is right. Injuries happen. Just ask the team on the other sideline. But how you prepare for those potential injuries says a lot about your roster and front office.
After Jones and Jenkins went down, they were replaced by Larry Borom and Jake Curhan. The new lineup played well for a while until falling apart on a promising drive in the third quarter that ended with a false start by Curhan and a sack allowed from the left side.
With Borom and Curhan coming into the game, that also left practice squad callup Chris Glaser as the team's only remaining healthy reserve on the offensive line.
Six plays after Jones was injured, Glaser was brought into the game as a sixth offensive lineman on a goal-line play. Ideally, you'd like to keep your lone reserve off the field until you absolutely need to use him. But let's also look at why Glaser was the only reserve left on the gameday roster.
On Saturday, Ryan Bates was placed on the injured reserve with a concussion suffered in Week 11 and Doug Kramer Jr. was a late addition to the injury report with a shoulder injury. On Sunday, Kramer was listed among the inactives along with another surprise. Rookie Kiran Amegadjie, who started at left tackle in Week 15, was also listed as an inactive despite never being listed with an injury all week.
That left the Bears with three reserve offensive linemen entering the game, while knowing that two starters were already banged up. And when you take a look at the roster as a whole, things continue to make zero sense with how the OL is built.
Th Bears have nine offensive linemen currently on the 53-man roster with three on the practice squad. Only Glaser, today in Week 16, has been elevated off the practice squad. Meanwhile, you have guys such as linebacker Noah Sewell (6 games as an inactive) and cornerback Ameer Speed (7 games as an inactive) who continue to waste roster spots just to be healthy inactives.
One would think that maybe one of those two spots could go to an additional offensive lineman to have available on the roster considering the level of availability and production the other nine players have offered this season.
Instead, the Bears continue to let the offensive line be a problem in more ways than one every week while their rookie quarterback continues to get hit and deal with other issues such as bad snaps and penalties every game.
