I might have been a tad harsh on my instant offensive line grade from the Bears’ loss to the Vikings on Monday Night Football, but hey, that’s the flaw of instant grades. We’re reacting in real time. Emotion is a factor, not having seen the film is a factor, and the result of the game is a factor.
After taking some time to look back at the All 22, the ‘F- I gave the Bears offensive line was a little too extreme. It was by no means the peak performance of what this group can put together, but it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought.
Last year, I did film breakdowns, clipping four or five plays a game and trying to break down the good and the bad. If there’s enough feedback to bring those back, I’d be willing. However, they tended to get lengthy, and going through offensive line specifics in written form isn’t the easiest task.
I still plan to watch the All 22 for the big boys up front each game. What I saw from this one wasn’t good, but it left me feeling better about what the group’s ceiling can be. And they did appear to be miles ahead of whatever it was we watched last year. I do want to throw in a disclaimer, though, that while I have a general idea of what the offensive line is and should be doing on each play, since I’m not in meetings or at practice, there’s no way of knowing for sure, so I’m just mainly making educated guesses on assignments.
Sep 8, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson reacts during the second half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesThe Good
The first half was fine. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful either. There were a few physical errors and some fundamental mistakes, but for the most part, things looked a whole lot cleaner than they did last year. Most of the time, mistakes were made due to getting flat-out beaten physically. This is the NFL, you’re going to get beaten sometimes. Especially going up against a Vikings defensive line littered with Pro Bowl and All-Pro talent. In the first half, it felt like they did a better job of limiting that.
Pass protection was far from perfect, but I did feel like it was good enough, for the most part. I thought the tackles gave up a little too much ground at times, but we didn’t really see many free runners or easy pass-rush wins on the edge like we saw last year.
Yesterday, I wrote a bit about right guard Jonah Jackson and his brutal PFF grade. The grades and the tape don’t lie. Jackson wasn’t good. But I’ve also heard people already start comparing him to Nate Davis. But after watching the tape from Week 1, I thought that was nowhere near accurate. Davis’s issues were poor effort, cutting corners, and not really wanting to play football. I didn’t get that sense at all from Jackson. He needs to clean up the pre-snap penalties and perform better physically. But outside of the false starts, I was okay with his effort and energy. He just had a bad night against a really good unit.
I’d also be remiss not to include right tackle Darnell Wright in the good section. He ranked as the fifth-best tackle in pass protection on PFF in all of football, and the eighth-best overall in Week 1. Wright was outstanding in the second half of last season, and I’m expecting big things from him this year because of that. I was pleased with what we saw from him in Week 1.
The Bad
While I thought Darnell Wright was good and left guard Joe Thuney was fine, the other three were bad. Sure, they were on different levels of bad. But left tackle Braxton Jones, center Drew Dalman, and right guard Jonah Jackson didn’t have good nights on Monday. What stood out as bad to me was those three getting beaten physically too much.
Braxton Jones still doesn’t look totally comfortable on his surgically repaired ankle. I’m not sure how he truly feels physically or if that surgically repaired ankle is 100%, but he still doesn’t quite look like the player he was pre-surgery, which was an above-average NFL tackle. Hopefully, he can get back to that point soon. Jones gave up a lot of ground on wide bull rushes, though I thought the Vikings did a good job of testing that ankle by sending some pretty wide rushers his way. Not only did that make him move to get out and meet them, but it also gave them a full head of steam for a collision.
As for Jonah Jackson and Drew Dalman, those two had a rough night against a good front seven. I’m not justifying it or saying it’s OK because performances like that most certainly aren’t, especially in Dalman’s case, after signing that big free-agent contract. But that just seemed to be the case.
One thing that also stuck out badly for me was Dalman’s failure to pick up simple stunts. It wasn’t as bad as we saw last year with Coleman Shelton at times, but truthfully, even one time burying yourself in a stunt and missing the second man coming around is too much. Anytime that happens, it’s unacceptable. That has to get cleaned up.
Sep 8, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) rushes the ball against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks – Imagn ImagesThe Ugly
The running game was ugly. That doesn’t fall squarely on the offensive line, as D’Andre Swift is also part of that equation. But the Bears weren’t able to get anything going on the ground despite having an 11-point lead in the second half. In football, sometimes you have to be able and suck it up and run the football even when teams know you’re going to try and do that. The Bears continuously lost that battle on Monday.
Too often, when it looked like there might be a window for a nice gain, we’d see Jackson get beaten across his face to the play side or Jones fail to get enough of a linebacker. Sometimes, we’d see Swift not see a hole soon enough or cut back right into the backside defender that the scheme purposely leaves unaccounted. Across the board, the run game needs to be figured out. Luckily, Beas Head Coach Ben Johnson was pretty darn good at that in Detroit. However, Chicago’s lack of a true second running back that they trust right now is a problem.
Constantly getting beaten in one-on-one situations against, granted, an excellent front seven isn’t good enough. the Bears’ head coach knows this better than anyone else, and I trust he’ll do everything he can to clean it up. But the run game was flat-out ugly, especially in the second half when the team and the quarterback needed it most.
Final Verdict
You can choose to look at Monday night optimistically or pessimistically. On the optimistic side, things looked cleaner than last year — both fundamentally and assignment-wise. The errors that were made were physical ones. Overall, they need to be firmer in pass protection and give quarterback Caleb Williams a little more time. But there were some fine, but definitely not great, pockets there.
The pessimistic view is that while Minnesota has an excellent front seven, it didn’t feel like Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores threw anything overly complicated at the Bears’ offensive line. They just lined up and played big-boy, smashmouth football, winning significantly more than they lost. This can make you wonder whether the Bears physically have a good enough offensive line to compete with the top units in the league.
You can be as assigned and fundamentally sound as you want, but it won’t matter if you can’t get the job done physically, it won’t matter.
Final Bears Offensive Line Grade: D+
Hence then, the article about bears week 1 offensive line regrade the good the bad the ugly was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Bears Week 1 Offensive Line Regrade: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly )
Also on site :