(670 The Score) In the eyes of former Bears star center Olin Kreutz, the current team just hasn't done enough to solidify an offensive line that's going to be an X-factor in Chicago's success or lack thereof in 2021.
With the return of right tackle Germain Ifedi on Monday from injury and veteran left tackle Jason Peters' recent arrival on a one-year deal, the Bears finally have their projected starting five together practicing together – but it took nearly four weeks into training camp. That's in part because rookie offensive tackle Teven Jenkins had been out with a back injury, which he had surgery for last week. That's also when the Bears signed the 39-year-old Peters on a one-year deal.
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While trading up to grab Jenkins in the second round of the NFL Draft was a proactive move to add to the offensive line, Kreutz still doesn't believe coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace have done enough up front, considering how much they stress the importance of the offensive line.
"You have to go back to the end-of-the-year press conference in 2019, when coach Nagy and Ryan Pace sat on stage and they said that the offensive line was the problem and that was real," Kreutz said on the Laurence Holmes Show on Monday.
"Obviously, they were saying, 'This is the position we have to fix.' So they fired the fired the (offensive line) coach, and everybody knows how I feel about Harry Hiestand. So obviously I'm not happy about that. But take all of that out of it and just take a step back and say OK, if you think your offensive line is the problem, then what are you going to do to fix it? Or are you just talking to us? It's kind of like when you hear coach Nagy talking about the run game. I just don't know how much he means it or if he really thinks that is the problem. Because they never really try to fix it. By that I mean, sign offensive linemen and/or sign tight ends who can actually block for the run game.
"In 2019, they say that, then they draft two offensive linemen in the seventh round and bring in free agents like Germain Ifedi for the veteran league minimum. To me, that's not saying you want to fix something. For me, if you want to fix something, I go right to where coach Nagy's mentor is. (Chiefs coach) Andy Reid says, 'I have to fix my offensive line after I lose the Super Bowl, so I throw $80 million at Joe Thuney. I trade for Orlando Brown. I draft Creed Humphrey in the second round.' Now there's a team throwing assets at their offensive line because they want to fix it. If you want to know why the Bears' offensive line struggles so much once they have injuries, just take a look at how much money they put into their offensive line and how many people they have there to step up if somebody goes down."
Kreutz pointed to the fact that the Bears' projected starting five offensive linemen will have a combined salary cap hit of just more than $13 million to start the season, while tight end Jimmy Graham – who's not an every-down player – has a $10-million cap hit to be used in a situational role.
"You can take the Bears starting line, which I think – I have to go back and look again – but I think salary cap-wise, they're making about $13 million total this year," Kreutz said. "That's their cap hit. Whereas Jimmy Graham – their spot-playing tight end who you put in in the red zone, who's not a great run blocker, so you're not going to use him on first or second down and I would argue with you by year's end, it will be Jesse James and Cole Kmet on the field mostly – you're paying (Graham) just about $10 million a year. So the Bears' whole offensive line combined it making two million more dollars than this spot-playing tight end because you think that those matchups in the red zone or in splitting him out are more important than what you keep talking about. You keep talking about fixing your offensive line, you keep talking about the run game. I just don't see you doing things to fix it."
