dplank wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:40 pm
Heinz D. wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:02 pm
So...the Bears are just throwing garbage out there, and crossing their fingers it all works out?
Yea, pretty much. They have two established players on the entire line, Whitehair and Patrick - that's it, and neither are all that great. Out of 5 starters, we have 2 established players - that's awful. Then we have two unproven 2nd year Tackles, and absolutely nothing at RG. And all that is there behind them to push them are late round drafted rookies + a bunch of guys that clearly suck: Mustipher, Dakota (RIP), Davenport, Simmons. The talent level is absolutely laughable. I do believe that Getsy will run a lot and get the ball out quick - much quicker than McNagy - so despite the poor talent we may still play better. But just being better isn't good enough - we have to be a LOT better than we've been. A whole lot better. There's a strong argument that the talent level is actually worse than last year.
If we want to be a contender, there simply has to be better talent out there. You can't just scheme everything, at some point your players have to be better than their players - particularly in the playoffs.
He's playing the long game, so while this year should be pretty rough I hold out hope that he meant what he said about focusing on OL play and will address it properly next offseason. And yea, it would be good to see some of these rookies get some action so we know if any of them can play.
I agree with every word of this.
This organization hasn't valued the offensive line since the mid 2000s. You can't draft like four or five late round picks hoping something sticks at positions as critical as OT. Those are the guys you want protecting the potential franchise QB?
The later rounds of the draft are supposed to build up your special teams and for true diamonds in the rough.
I don't understand why other people argue against this so much. To me anyway, it's a basic Football 101 kind of a thing. Bigger, more aggressive and more talented guys up front (on both sides of the ball) are going to push back smaller, less aggressive and less talented guys and therefore move the ball in the direction you want.
But people think you can just razzle dazzle your way around things. You can't.
For all the glitz and glamour certain players and certain positions get, those players have the TIME to do what they need to do because the guys up front create that time for them.
Then we are bombarded ad nauseum with YouTube videos about QB footwork, release time, and how that 0.02 of a second is the difference between Trent Dilfer and Aaron Rodgers or some crap.
Well OK. What is an extra 3 seconds worth on every single play? That's what great OL players do.
Or creating holes for the RB that you can drive a truck through? What's that worth?
The five starting OL are the most important positions on the field.