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#6 Chicago Bears
Offense: LT Charles Leno, LG Cody Whitehair, C James Daniels, RG Kyle Long, RT Bobby Massie; Bench – Matt McCants, Bradley Sowell & Hroniss Grasu
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Defense: LE Akiem Hicks, NT Eddie Goldman, RE Jonathan Bullard; Bench: Roy Robertson-Harris, John Jenkins
If the Bears want to get back to their old days, things have to start up front and I think they are well on their way. Offensively, the pride themselves on grounding people in the run game and on defense, they are building a monster, with a lot of speed and hard-hitting.
When the Bears had Josh Sitton and Kyle Long healthy over the last two seasons, I thought their interior three guys were as good as any trio in the league. Sitton became a cap casualty and he went on to sign with Miami.
However, Chicago was extremely lucky to grab Iowa’s James Daniels in the second round. That guy brings unbelievable mobility to the center position, but I think he lacks some strength to play guard and so I moved Whitehair to Sitton’s original spot.
Charles Leno and Bobby Massie might not be star individual players, but they have held up very well and don’t force protections to shift either way. This will be an excellent zone-running team, that draws defenses to flow with them and hit them with bootlegs to counter off that action.
Nobody really talks about this, but Akiem Hicks was a disruptive force last season, as he finished second among interior D-lineman with 37 run stops and produced 49 total pressures in the passing game. I always liked Eddie Goldman, going back to his college days and I feel like this Bears D is a different unit with him out there manning the middle.
Jonathan Bullard has been playing very well off the bench for this squad and now with Mitch Unrein leaving for Tampa Bay, I think he will step up in a larger role. This unit together with their linebackers manhandled the Panthers offense in week seven last year. Like I said two weeks ago in my list on the biggest remaining needs for each NFC team (LINK!!!), I don’t like the depth behind those three guys though.
