Alright so biggest Bears news of the offseason just came together in a nice 1-2 punch with Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson coming over for draft picks. I’m no expert but I’m smart enough to tackle the most important things. So here’s where we stand on these moves.
1st off we don’t trust Ryan Poles yet, but we like his character a lot and we hope he’s smart enough to make huge corrections to a terrible offensive line. That means we can’t take this as a guaranteed win because he hasn’t proven to be good enough at upgrading the roster. But we can be cautiously optimistic these are the right pieces to keep Caleb Williams off the turf.
2nd – Ben Johnson coached Jonah Jackson for a number of years in Detroit, which should help other offensive linemen with the playbook, strategy and overall adjustments under the coach. Naturally I love this move because it’s like adding a veteran catcher to a talented baseball club. There’s a lot of intangibles that come with established relationships, which are not that common in the NFL.
3rd – Jackson is 28 and should start at guard right away. Could he play center? I don’t know but he’s getting paid $17.5M and you can’t have him on the bench. So coming off injuries, we have to just assume he’s locked in somewhere between the tackles.
4th – Joe Thuney has 4 super bowls, 2 all pros, 3 pro bowls and has only missed two regular season games in 9 years
5th – Even if he’s 32 years old and worth a $16M cap hit, you have to love the stability that comes with his game. Especially since we’re adding Jackson off injury. That spreads the risk out a little bit and sets up perfectly for maybe the sexiest consideration…
6th – The Bears could hypothetically draft Jeanty without compromising the offensive line upgrades. There’s enough room later in the draft and people are obsessed with the idea of Jeanty in a Bears uniform the same way my old lady wants to get a sports car. Of course I’ll enjoy it, but of course I’ll also regret it at some point. Running backs in the first round is a TERRIBLE idea and that’s long before we even remember that the Bears simply don’t need skill position upgrades. Certainly not with the 10th overall pick, right? Bears fans are largely saying otherwise which I think is because we’ve been tortured into bad decisions. I don’t know how else to explain it
7th – I would trade down out of 10 and add more picks this year or next and use everything on the trenches. Offense or defense. Just give me the biggest ugliest and meanest guys in the draft and bring them up together. That to me seems like the smartest idea and I think Thuney & Jackson are a perfect step in that direction.