13 hours Ago By Brad Biggs
A season-ending injury for Braxton Jones proved to be not nearly as bad as it could have been when he was folded back on his left ankle as Detroit Lions defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike fell on his right leg early in the second quarter of Sunday’s game. The left tackle escaped with a fractured fibula, an injury requiring surgery . Jones was fortunate to avoid ligament or other structural damage.
Barring something unexpected, he should be back in action during the offseason program. Jones becomes the third offensive lineman to finish the season on injured reserve in a year where almost anything that can go wrong in the trenches has. Twelve linemen have played.
Nine have started and that number is expected to reach 10 with left guard Teven Jenkins ruled out with a calf injury for Thursday night’s game against the Seattle Seahawks at Soldier Field. Jake Curhan will likely replace him. Eleven linemen have more than 65 snaps, just above the team’s average of 63 per game.
That number would have been 12 if Bill Murray had not been lost to a torn pectoral muscle. How the Bears pivot against the Seahawks will be interesting. Larry Borom started at left tackle against Arizona and New England when a knee injury sidelined Jones in midseason.
Caleb Williams was sacked 15 times in those two games so when a concussion derailed Jones earlier this month, rookie third-round pick Kiran Amegadjie got a turn at left tackle in Minnesota. His introduction to NFL speed in a raucous prime-time affair against an unpredictable Vikings defense didn’t go well. It’s just the latest dilemma for the organization, which had more depth and flexibility when the year began.
All of it has been tested. Much of it has failed or been injured. It’s removed suspense from offseason planning.
What should the Bears do? Shop for offensive linemen. Then go find more of them. Linemen Tom Thayer, Jay Hilgenberg and Keith Van Horne in 1992.
All three were part of the Chicago Bears 1985 Super Bowl team. (Michael Fryer/Chicago Tribune) I’m reminded of the “Black and Blues Brothers” poster featuring nine Bears offensive linemen from the 1985 team. A framed copy hung on the wall inside T.
J. Donlin’s, a friendly Bourbonnais bar across the street from Olivet Nazarene University where players congregated at night during training camp in summers gone by. Buddy Ryan’s vicious defense gets a lot of credit for the Super Bowl XX season.
Walter Payton and Mike Ditka were larger-than-life stars. There was quarterback Jim McMahon, speedster Willie Gault and many others but the Bears had an offensive line that was so established and so good — they led the NFL in rushing for four consecutive seasons from 1983 to 1986 — Chevrolet sponsored a poster of the linemen to compete for wall space with Payton, Michael Jordan and Farah Fawcett in the bedrooms of teenagers. That Bears team recorded the “Super Bowl Shuffle” in December 1985.
The Black and Blues Brothers poster, a nod to the “Blues Brothers” movie, was born in Week 5 of that season. The linemen wore black fedoras and black sunglasses. Center Jay Hilgenberg is in the middle with his left foot on top of a football.
Right tackle Keith Van Horne is clutching a black satchel. “The offensive line was starting to develop a reputation of its own,” said guard Tom Thayer, now the team’s radio analyst. “It was a pre-emptive strike by a segment of the Bears that was really good but unheralded for the most part.
“When you look at that poster, there is something for everyone to gravitate toward. You’ve got the big, tall strong guy like (Van Horne). You got the thick guy like Jimbo (Covert).
You’ve got the guy like (Hilgenberg) who kind of gives you the appearance of Jim Belushi and then all of the rest of us sprinkled in there. It’s a lot like the ’85 Bears. There is something for everybody.
” Thayer recalled back to the trip to Detroit on Thanksgiving Day last month and noted he saw a billboard outside of Ford Field featuring the Lions offensive line, considered one of the best in the league. It made his mind wander back to the poster he was once part of. The only placard printed for the Bears right now when it comes to linemen might be a “wanted” poster — a theme for the offseason and a first order of business for the new coaching staff.
Chicago Bears linemen Ruben Brown (74), Olin Kreutz (57), Roberto Garza (63) and Fred Miller (69) during a game in which the Bears defeated the San Francisco 49ers 41-10 at Soldier Field on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006. (Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune) The last time the Bears had consecutive winning seasons, in 2005-06, they were anchored by a very good offensive line led by six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz.
The Super Bowl XLI line of John Tait, Ruben Brown, Kreutz, Roberto Garza and Fred Miller made 78 of 80 possible starts that season. The Bears are a long way off from building that kind of talent and with it the requisite chemistry. Right tackle Darnell Wright figures to be a part of the line moving forward.
The rest is a series of question marks, some larger than others. One thing I didn’t understand two weeks ago was when folks questioned why the Bears chose to start Amegadjie at Minnesota. Make no mistake, he struggled and the Bears had a tough time protecting Williams against the Vikings even though he was sacked only twice.
There was too much pressure and it impacted how interim coach Thomas Brown called the game. Amegadjie got a rude introduction on the second third down of the game when he was barely out of his stance and Vikings outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard was by him in a flash leading to a strip-sack. Chicago Bears offensive tackle Kiran Amegadjie falls to the turf while trying to block Minnesota Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel in the third quarter in Minneapolis on Monday, Dec.
16, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Amegadjie will be better for it the next time he’s out there, whenever that is. Will he be good enough? I have no idea.
But there’s no better learning tool than getting game reps and now he’s got a real idea of what it’s like in the NFL against starters versus what it was like playing for Yale in the Ivy League. “I liked the Yale kid (Amegadjie) coming out,” said a general manager for another team when I reached him to discuss an unrelated topic. “We liked him.
He has some talent but you throw him in there on the road against a Vikings defense that talent-wise is a little above average but I think Brian Flores has done an unbelievable job. That’s rough. “The right tackle (Wright) has a chance to be a good player.
That’s the only one right now.” Maybe the Bears turn back to Amegadjie with the game at Soldier Field. Perhaps they stick with Borom, who was much steadier last week against the Lions than earlier in the season.
However the Bears design it, it’s suboptimal. They are a long way from putting together a billboard or poster-worthy offensive line. Julian Love, Seahawks strong safety Seattle Seahawks safety Julian Love reacts to tackling Minnesota Vikings tight end T.
J. Hockenson on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Seattle.
(AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Julian Love, 5-foot-11, 195 pounds, is in his second season with the Seahawks after they signed him to a two-year contract in free agency in 2023. Love had a Pro Bowl season and back in July, he was rewarded with a $36 million, three-year extension. The Nazareth Academy and Notre Dame product was originally a fourth-round draft pick of the New York Giants in 2019 and he played all over the secondary for them, at cornerback and safety.
Love had 123 tackles and four interceptions last season and has 98 tackles with nine passes broken up and two picks this season. “Extremely athletic and at Notre Dame he was a cornerback and that’s where the Giants projected him,” a scout said. “I didn’t really like that.
I didn’t see him as a short-area mover. I thought he was more of a long-strider with range and it’s another example of the Giants misidentifying talent and letting talent walk. Since he got to Seattle, Love has really taken off.
“He’s excellent post safety range and very good ball skills. Not an extremely physical tackler but he will run the alley and put a helmet on you and wrap up. He’s a good tackler.
The thing that has really developed in Seattle is he’s become a playmaker. If he continues to play like this in Mike Macdonald’s defense, which is very good for safeties, this is a guy who could be an All-Pro in the future if he can increase his ball production. The best move he made in his career was leaving New York and going to Seattle where he’s used as a deep half safety because that is where he fits best.
That’s why he’s been paid.” Information for this report was obtained from NFL scouts..
