Latest On Bears’ Offensive Line
Previously a possibility at left tackle, Riley Reiff now looks to be settling in on the right side. The Bears moved the longtime NFC North left tackle-turned-Bengals RT off the blind side recently, with Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com noting rookie Braxton Jones has taken most of the left-side reps over the past several days.
Reiff, 33, played right tackle with the Bengals last season, prior to going down with a mid-December ankle injury that shelved him for the team’s unlikely Super Bowl run, and moved to the right side in 2016 to accommodate Lions first-round pick Taylor Decker. In every other season, Reiff has primarily been a left tackle.
Jones and Reiff starting would leave Chicago with two new tackle starters. The team’s top 2021 left tackle, Jason Peters, remains a free agent. The player the previous regime hoped would commandeer that post, Teven Jenkins, has not done so. The 2021 second-round pick has battled injuries throughout his career. While Jenkins has returned to practice, he has lined up with the Bears’ second- and third-string lines since doing so, Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic tweets.
As Jones began to show starter readiness during the Bears’ offseason program, Jenkins has already popped up in trade rumors. The Bears chose Jones 168th overall out of Division I-FCS Southern Utah. This would obviously be a big jump from his 2021 gig.
Larry Borom worked as Chicago’s primary right tackle last year, but the 2021 fifth-round pick is playing behind Reiff presently. Pro Football Focus graded Borom outside its top 60 tackles last season. Although O-line development usually takes some time, the Bears’ new coaching staff may be prepared to let the Mizzou product learn from the bench behind Reiff (139 career starts). Borom has been working at both tackle spots, suggesting a potential path as the team’s swing backup.
The team exited the 2020 season with one of the league’s most stable tackle tandems, with Charles Leno and Bobby Massie having started together for five years. The Bears, however, released Leno and did not re-sign Massie during the 2021 offseason. Leno is now with Washington, tied to an extension signed earlier this year, while Chicago searches for long-term replacements. The Bears are not expected to contend this season, but Justin Fields preparing for his first full campaign as the team’s starting quarterback certainly makes tackle performance important through a longer-term lens.
Additionally, late-July pickup Michael Schofield is ticketed to be the team’s top right guard, Cronin adds. Mainstay Cody Whitehair remains the Bears’ other guard starter, while ex-Packer Lucas Patrick is poised to be the Bears’ new center. A former Super Bowl starter at right tackle with the Broncos, Schofield has been a serviceable guard in the years since. The Chargers used him as a guard starter in 49 games over the past five years.
NFC North Notes: Bears, OL, Vikings, Barrett
Mentioned in trade rumors to start the week, Teven Jenkins has not practiced with the Bears since Day 1 of training camp. Due to the unknown ailment he is currently battling and last year’s back injury, Jenkins has participated in just one training camp practice since being chosen in the 2021 second round. He does not look to be factoring into Chicago’s first-string tackle mix. Recently signed veteran Riley Reiff does, and Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune expects the 11th-year blocker to be the team’s left tackle starter. Reiff spent most of his career as an NFC North left tackle but played on the right side for the Bengals last season. Larry Borom, Chicago’s primary right tackle during his 2021 rookie season, should be considered the favorite to stay in that role, Biggs adds. The Bears ditched their five-year tackle setup last summer, cutting Bobby Massie before the ’21 draft and releasing Charles Leno after selecting Jenkins. Leno has since signed a three-year, $37.5MM extension with the Commanders.
Here is the latest from the NFC North:
- Irv Smith Jr. worked his way back from the knee injury that wiped out his 2021 season, but the third-year Vikings tight end has run into more trouble. Smith underwent thumb surgery, Kevin O’Connell said. While the first-year Minnesota HC added Smith should be back by Week 1, he will miss the preseason. Having let Tyler Conklin hit the market and defect the Jets, the Vikings are counting on Smith to be their starter this season.
- Jesse Davis has worked as the Vikings’ first-string right guard to start training camp, Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes. The Vikings used fellow free agent signing Chris Reed as the primary first-stringer here during a recent Davis day off. Minnesota is also incorporating second-round pick Ed Ingram into this competition, per O’Connell. Davis, who shuttled between guard and tackle with the Dolphins for years, signed for one year and $3MM. Reed, a recent Colts backup, signed a two-year, $4.5MM pact. Reed has also worked at center in his initial months with the Vikes.
- The Packers promoted Jon-Eric Sullivan recently. The veteran executive is now serving as the team’s VP of of player personnel. A Packers staffer since 2004, Sullivan has worked his way up from the regional scouting ranks. When Brian Gutekunst was hired as GM in 2018, Sullivan became the team’s co-player personnel director alongside John Wojciechowski. Green Bay also promoted Chris Gaines and Sean Linton to college scouts.
- J.T. Barrett is breaking into the coaching ranks. The former Ohio State quarterback is now on the Lions‘ staff as an offensive assistant. Barrett, 27, caught on with the Saints, Seahawks and Steelers as an NFLer but never saw regular-season time. He also spent time with the CFL’s Edmonton Elks.
Bears OL Teven Jenkins Finishes Minicamp With Second-String Offense
Bears OL Teven Jenkins began practicing with Chicago’s second-team offense towards the end of OTAs, and that continued throughout the club’s mandatory minicamp, per Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns of The Athletic (subscription required). Meanwhile, Braxton Jones has been operating as the first-string left tackle, with 2021 fifth-rounder Larry Borom at RT.
Jenkins, the No. 39 overall pick of the 2021 draft, was originally viewed as a future fixture on the blindside. Unfortunately, he was forced to undergo back surgery last August, and he ultimately appeared in just six games (two starts) as a rookie.
Although both Jenkins and Borom were selected by the Bears’ prior regime, the new coaching staff appeared plenty content to move forward with them as their first-stringers — Jenkins at RT and Borom at LT — just a couple of weeks ago. So it is notable that Jenkins has been demoted in favor of Jones, a rookie Day 3 selection.
Naturally, head coach Matt Eberflus downplayed the significance of the move. “We’re going to finish off the minicamp with this alignment, and then we’ll decide, ‘Hey, we like this alignment, that alignment,’ or, like I said, ‘(We) don’t like either one; let’s go with a new one,'” he said. “So we’re just assessing guys’ talents, assessing their skill level and going forward from there.”
With three unproven options vying for jobs as OL bookends in support of a second-year quarterback, Justin Fields, there is certainly plenty of logic in trying different alignments, particularly in OTAs and minicamp. But in a separate piece, Fishbain and Jahns suggest that there is more to Jenkins’ current status than Eberflus is letting on. Jahns posits that, if the Bears simply wanted to try Borom out on the right side, they could have shifted him to the second team to give him a look while keeping Jenkins with the first-team offense at RT, where he had been penciled in for months. Indeed, OL continuity is meaningful, even in spring work, and it appears that Jenkins is simply not performing at a high enough level right now.
Obviously, the alignment for the start of training camp will be particularly telling. While Eberflus was non-committal when asked if either Borom or Jenkins could see time at guard, both players lined up exclusively at tackle in practices that were open to the media.
OL Notes: Browns, Bakhtiari, Pats, Bears
Although the Browns signed the Seahawks’ primary center of the past two years (Ethan Pocic), they are first attempting to see if one of their recent backups can claim J.C. Tretter‘s old job. Nick Harris is working as Cleveland’s first-string center during OTAs, Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal notes. A fifth-round pick out of Washington in 2020, Harris made one start in each of the past two seasons — the late-2021 outing came when Tretter contracted COVID-19 — but he practiced extensively with the Browns’ first-unit O-line last season. Tretter dealt with injuries, and while the veteran played through them, he often sat out practices or worked in a limited capacity. This gave Harris a runway to full-fledged starter action and gave the Browns enough confidence to make Tretter a March cap casualty. The NFLPA president remains a free agent.
Ditching Tretter, 30, remains a gamble for the Browns, who still hold the NFL’s most cap space. Tretter graded as Pro Football Focus’ sixth-best center in 2021, started all but one game in five Cleveland seasons and provided a solid pivot on one of the league’s best lines. Here is the latest from the O-line scene:
- The ACL tear David Bakhtiari suffered on New Year’s Eve 2020 wrecked his 2021 season, limiting him to just one game (Week 18). The Packers are proceeding cautiously with their two-time All-Pro left tackle this offseason. Matt LaFleur confirmed the team is holding Bakhtiari out of OTAs, via ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky (on Twitter), for conservation purposes. The expectation is the 10th-year veteran returns for training camp. Still, the lengthy recovery Bakhtiari required from his injury makes his status worth monitoring ahead of an age-31 season.
- New England picked up Isaiah Wynn‘s fifth-year option in 2021, guaranteeing the injury-prone left tackle $10.4MM this season. But he has missed OTA time, leaving recently re-signed right tackle Trent Brown — the left tackle on the Patriots’ 2018 Super Bowl-winning team — to fill in on the left side. The Pats have made a few trades involving contract-year talent under Bill Belichick — Sony Michel, Brandin Cooks and Jamie Collins being recent examples. If New England was to dangle Wynn, Jeff Howe of The Athletic notes teams would be willing to fork over a reasonable return (subscription required). That might be a bridge too far, considering the Pats already traded a veteran blocker (Shaq Mason) and saw Brown’s run of absences continue with eight more last season.
- The Bears have 2021 second-rounder Teven Jenkins pegged as their right tackle starter. Jenkins returned from preseason back surgery to start two games as a rookie, but he was close to 350 pounds last year. The Chicago blocker is back near his listed 320-pound weight, with Adam Jahns of The Athletic noting Jenkins is checking in around 325. Larry Borom is penciled in to take over for Jason Peters at left tackle.
NFC Rumors: Jenkins, Eagles, Seahawks, Rams
Offensive lineman Teven Jenkins was taken in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft last year by the Chicago Bears, but only got a small portion of his rookie season to earn a spot on the line. Well, according to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, the new Bears’ staff is giving him the best chance, alongside fellow 2021 Draft pick Larry Borom, to start at right or left tackle.
Jenkins underwent back surgery in the preseason last year and was placed on injured reserve. He returned and made his debut in early December, playing on special teams. An injury to left tackle Jason Peters opened the door for Jenkins and he subbed in for the next two weeks, returning to a reserve role after that.
New offensive line coach Chris Morgan has been pleasantly surprised by the two second-year players, so far, but remarks that “everything changes once the pads come on.” It appears, though, that, for now, the starting tackle jobs are Jenkins and Borom’s to lose.
Here are some other rumors from around the NFC, starting with a rumor out of the City of Brotherly Love:
- The Eagles were the franchise that mercifully and excitedly put an end to the slide of presumed first-round pick Nakobe Dean. Dean ended up falling to the third round due to projections about his long-term health. The Eagles could’ve gone another route, though, according to Zach Berman of The Athletic. Berman says that Philadelphia reportedly had multiple trade offers to move back from the pick they used to select Dean. Due to their significant lack of of Day 3 picks, it would have made all of the sense in the world for them to take one of those teams up on their offers, but, lo and behold, the Eagles stood pat and drafted Dean, a testament to the confidence they have in his addition.
- The Eagles weren’t the only team looking at the possibility of moving. According to Brady Henderson of ESPN, “the Seahawks tried to trade up into the late first round” of the 2022 NFL Draft for Penn State outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie. Like Philadelphia, Seattle stood pat, hoping he may slide to them in the second round. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, Atlanta moved up to select Ebiketie two spots in front of them. Seattle ended up selecting Minnesota outside linebacker Boye Mafe instead. Mafe is no consolation prize but a strong pick in his own regard, having generated first-round buzz before slipping to the front of the second round. Seattle swung and missed on Ebiketie, but they most certainly did not strike out when they landed Mafe.
- The Rams won Super Bowl LVI despite the losses before the game of tight end Tyler Higbee and safety Jordan Fuller. Fuller suffered an ankle injury in the team’s Week 18 loss to the 49ers and Higbee suffered a knee injury in the NFC Championship game. Both players underwent offseason surgery and, according to Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic, are “working their way back up to full football activity.”
Minor NFL Transactions: 10/30/21
Here is the Week 8 Saturday minor move blitz:
Atlanta Falcons
- Promoted: LB Daren Bates, LB James Vaughters
Buffalo Bills
- Promoted: TE Kahale Warring
Carolina Panthers
- Placed on IR: DE Darryl Johnson
- Promoted: P Lachlan Edwards, WR Keith Kirkwood
Chicago Bears
- Activated from IR: T Larry Borom
Cincinnati Bengals
- Promoted: DE Khalid Kareem, RB Trayveon Williams
Cleveland Browns
- Promoted: CB Tim Harris, S Jovante Moffatt
Denver Broncos
- Activated from IR: LB Jonas Griffith
- Promoted: LB Barrington Wade
Detroit Lions
- Activated from IR: DE Da’Shawn Hand
- Promoted: S Jalen Elliott, TE Brock Wright
Houston Texans
- Placed on IR: C Justin Britt
- Promoted: LB Hardy Nickerson, G Lane Taylor, OL Cole Toner
Los Angeles Rams
- Signed: TE Kendall Blanton
- Promoted: DB Antoine Brooks, DB Tyler Hall
Miami Dolphins
- Promoted: LB Vince Biegel, RB Patrick Laird, CB Jamal Perry
Minnesota Vikings
- Promoted: TE Luke Stocker, DE Kenny Willekes
New England Patriots
- Promoted: DT Daniel Ekuale
New Orleans Saints
- Activated after six-game suspension: DT David Onyemata
- Placed on IR: G Andrus Peat (story)
- Promoted: T Jordan Mills, WR Kevin White
New York Jets
- Activated from IR: LB Jarrad Davis
- Promoted: LB Noah Dawkins, QB Josh Johnson, DE Jabari Zuniga
- Released: S Jarrod Wilson
Philadelphia Eagles
- Promoted: RB Jordan Howard, TE Richard Rodgers
- Activated from IR: S K’Von Wallace
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Promoted: DE Taco Charlton
Seattle Seahawks
- Promoted: LB Tanner Muse
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Promoted: WR Cyril Grayson
Tennessee Titans
- Promoted: DL Eli Ankou, FB Tory Carter, RB Dontrell Hilliard
Washington Football Team
- Promoted: C Keith Ismael, T David Steinmetz
Minor NFL Transactions: 10/27/21
All of today’s minor transactions in one place:
Carolina Panthers
- Designated for return: S Juston Burris
Chicago Bears
- Designated for return: OT Larry Borom
Detroit Lions
- Signed to active roster: OL Tommy Kraemer
Houston Texans
- Designated for return: QB Tyrod Taylor (story)
New England Patriots
- Signed: LB Calvin Munson (off Dolphins practice squad)
- Signed to active roster: OL James Ferentz
New Orleans Saints
- Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: CB Ken Crawley, WR Lil’Jordan Humphrey
New York Jets
- Designated for return: LB Jarrad Davis, P Braden Mann, DE Kyle Phillips
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Activated from IR: RB Anthony McFarland
- Placed on IR: DT Carlos Davis
San Francisco 49ers
- Designated for return: DT Kevin Givens
Minor NFL Transactions: 9/18/21
The customary Saturday minor moves avalanche:
Arizona Cardinals
- Promoted: S Chris Banjo, CB Antonio Hamilton
Baltimore Ravens
- Promoted: CB Kevon Seymour, T Andre Smith
Chicago Bears
- Promoted: DL Margus Hunt, T Alex Taylor
- Placed on IR: T Larry Borom
Cincinnati Bengals
- Promoted: S Sean Davis
Cleveland Browns
- Promoted: LB Elijah Lee
Dallas Cowboys
- Promoted: TE Jeremy Sprinkle
Denver Broncos
- Promoted: RB Damarea Crockett, OL Austin Schlottmann
Houston Texans
- Promoted: TE Antony Auclair, K Joey Slye
Indianapolis Colts
- Promoted: WR DeMichael Harris
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Promoted: WR Laquon Treadwell
Las Vegas Raiders
- Promoted: OL Lester Cotton, RB Trey Ragas
Los Angeles Chargers
- Promoted: DL Joe Gaziano
Los Angeles Rams
- Promoted: LB Micah Kiser, DL Justin Lawler
Miami Dolphins
- Promoted: CB Jamal Perry
Minnesota Vikings
- Promoted: RB Ameer Abdullah, S Myles Dorn, QB Sean Mannion
- Waived: TE Brandon Dillon
New England Patriots
- Promoted: LB Tashawn Bower, K Nick Folk
- Placed on IR: K Quinn Nordin (story)
New Orleans Saints
- Promoted: DE Jalyn Holmes, LB Wynton McManis, DB Jordan Miller, C Austin Reiter (story)
- Placed on IR: LB Chase Hansen
New York Jets
- Promoted: S Adrian Colbert, LB Del’Shawn Phillips
San Francisco 49ers
- Placed on IR: LB Dre Greenlaw (story)
Tennessee Titans
- Promoted: TE Tommy Hudson
Bears Sign Four More Draft Picks
The Bears have inked the majority of their draft class to contracts. The team announced that they’ve signed fifth-round tackle Larry Borom, sixth-round running back Khalil Herbert, sixth-round receiver Dazz Newsome, and sixth-round cornerback Thomas Graham Jr.. We passed along the signing of seventh-round nose tackle Khyiris Tonga earlier today.
Borom is the most notable name on the list, as the Missouri product started 19 of his 33 games over the past three seasons. He’ll likely serve as a backup to Elijah Wilkinson on the right side, although he has the versatility to play all over the offensive line. Herbert was also a notable pick after collecting 2,918 rushing yards in 46 college games, including 1,183 yards in 11 games for Virginia Tech last year. He’ll compete for a spot as backup to David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen.
While Newsome got his first NFL contract today, it’s not all good news for the rookie. We learned earlier today that the rookie wideout broke his collarbone in practice on Tuesday. Fortunately, it was a clean break for the sixth-rounder, meaning Newsome should be good to go by the start of training camp.
With the signing, the Bears now only have a pair of unsigned draft picks: first-round quarterback Justin Fields and second-round tackle Teven Jenkins.