How did Chicago Bears offensive line get here? And how can Matt Eberflus, Ryan Poles fix it?

LAKE FOREST – Actions speak louder than words.

Everything the Chicago Bears did over the offseason suggested general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus believed their offensive line was close to a breakthrough.

Nobody was suggesting this group would be the best O-line in the NFL, but Poles and Eberflus clearly had a lot of belief in the team’s returning talent. That was apparent in the moves the team made (or didn’t make) in the offseason.

The organization completely overhauled the offensive coaching staff with a new coordinator in Shane Waldron and new assistant coaches. Despite that turnover, the Bears elected to keep offensive line coach Chris Morgan, one of the few offensive assistants who kept his job from Luke Getsy’s staff.

With a gaping hole in the lineup at center, the Bears tried to address it twofold. They traded for versatile lineman Ryan Bates and they signed former Rams center Coleman Shelton in free agency.

The fact that they didn’t make any changes with the other four starting positions on the offensive line speaks volumes. It signaled a belief that those starters – left tackle Braxton Jones, left guard Teven Jenkins, right guard Nate Davis and right tackle Darnell Wright – would keep taking strides individually and would improve their cohesiveness as a group. It’s a young group, too. Three of those four returning starters are still on rookie contracts.

The Bears could’ve used the No. 9 overall pick on an offensive lineman, but they elected to instead go with Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze. Eight offensive linemen were selected in the first round of the draft and six of them were still available at No. 9. Poles and Eberflus felt wide receiver was a bigger area of need, and certainly there’s a lot to be excited about with Odunze.

Now, flash forward to September. Two weeks into the NFL season, the Bears offensive line looks lost. On Sunday night, Houston sacked rookie quarterback Caleb Williams seven times. The Bears rank 28th in rushing yards per game and 31st in total yards.

What I notice is it just kind of looks like one guy or two guys are shooting ourselves in the foot and then we’re just kind of taking turns.”

—  Braxton Jones, Bears left tackle

“What I notice is it just kind of looks like one guy or two guys are shooting ourselves in the foot and then we’re just kind of taking turns,” said Jones, the third-year left tackle.

Jones is absolutely right. Every single member of the offensive line has had a bad moment during the first two games. The mistakes are coming all across the board. The interior with Jenkins, Shelton and Davis had notable struggles in Week 1 against Tennessee’s two monster defensive tackles Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat. A week later, Jones and Wright both struggled against Houston’s edge rushers.

In a key moment late on the final drive of the game – with the Bears somehow trailing by only six points – Wright completely whiffed on a block against Houston’s Danielle Hunter, who sacked Williams. There’s nothing more concerning than seeing last year’s No. 10 overall pick completely miss his man.

Everybody has to be better. It’s easy to question offseason decisions in retrospect, but it’s also fair to wonder if the Bears did enough to bolster the unit that has to protect the No. 1 overall draft pick for 17 games.

Even the guys living it are a bit surprised by just how rough these first two games have been.

“I feel like we were doing a really good job of communicating preseason and just in all aspects,” Jones said. “Maybe not in the run. We could’ve obviously done better in the preseason, stuff like that. But in the pass, I feel like we were all in the same page. It’s just getting back to that.”

The run game has been particularly disheartening. The Bears ranked second in the NFL in rushing last season and first in 2022. Former QB Justin Fields was the leading rusher both those seasons. Was Fields really the difference between a top five rushing attack and a bottom five attack?

Poles invested $24.5 million over three years into running back D’Andre Swift. Over two games, Swift has spent more time behind the line of scrimmage than all but two NFL running backs. There haven’t been many holes for him to hit.

“We weren’t happy,” Davis, the right guard, said. “No one likes losing. So it’s one of those things where we’ve got to take the coaching, understand what we need to do better and try to flush it.”

For the next three weeks, at least, there doesn’t appear to be any help on the way. In an unfortunate twist, Bates went down with shoulder and elbow injuries. He went on injured reserve last week and will miss at least three more games. While the Bears made the center job an open competition, Bates was clearly their marquee addition on the offensive line. Poles had been trying to acquire him from Buffalo for two years. He doesn’t do that unless he thinks Bates can be a difference-maker.

The injury limits what changes the Bears can make to the lineup. Even with Shelton and Davis struggling, the Bears don’t have a solid option they can rely on until Bates comes back healthy. They signed veteran lineman Matt Pryor in free agency, but the coaching staff hasn’t shown any indication it believes Pryor would do a better job than Shelton or Davis.

On Wednesday, Eberflus said he has no plans to make any lineup changes this week.

“We’re looking for continuity and consistency and communication and getting better,” Eberflus said. “That’s what we’re focused on.”

Poles could look for answers ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline, but it’s too early to know which teams might be sellers at the deadline. Any free agents still on the market are probably there for a reason. The best hope might be to wait until Bates come back healthy and then shake up the lineup.

In the short term, Eberflus and Poles have to figure this out with the players they have now. They bet big on this group months ago. It’s far too soon to abandon that plan yet.

“It’s not scheme,” Eberflus said. “It’s not this or that. It all comes down to basics and fundamentals and we’ve got to keep working on that as we go.”

If Eberflus and Waldron are the coaches that the Bears hope they are, they will make adjustments. If they don’t, then the Bears have much bigger issues than a porous offensive line.