I don’t want to make a huge deal in late May about a contract extension for a veteran interior lineman that’s never played a game for the Bears. But at the same time that’s exactly what I want to do because I think it’s a genius move from Ryan Poles to get a long-term commitment on the table with Joe Thuney.
Here’s why:
- Thuney is now locked up through 2027 with Dalman and Jonah Jackson securing the Bears with some predictability and consistency at the interior line positions for the first time since Olin Kreutz and Roberto Garza lined up together
- You have 3 years for that interior veteran group to build a culture for youngsters like Ozzie now and in the future which is probably most important.
- $17.5M a season for a top 5 guard in the league is probably $7-10M less than what he’s worth in an open market allegedly and that’s awesome because…
- The Bears get a about $7M in cap space from the extension which adds total cap space left to about $14M. Not a huge number but it’s also May
- In emergency situation Thuney can play some tackle and while I don’t want to celebrate that too much, it’s nice to have that option after committing $33M guaranteed to a guard. It’s nice knowing that he’s got the experience and skillset to play 4 different positions on the line. It would be even nicer if we never crossed that path but worth mentioning in the first place.
Overall the most important thing to me is building culture in the locker room and across the organization. Securing 3 years of an elite veteran interior offensive lineman is a huge step in that direction as we live and die with the health and safety of Caleb Williams.
For these reasons, we love it.
Hit it baldy