In the aftermath of the draft this humble and faithful narrator noted that more than just the Bears’ No. 1 draft choice could be categorized as “undersized” based on the vague NFL templates at various positions. The Bears haven’t gone away from size as much as they have stressed speed, even to perhaps a greater degree than they already have at any time during the tenure of GM Ryan Pace.
Everyone prizes speed – Bear Bryant’s “Luck follows speed” still applies, in more than just football. But former GM Phil Emery made up-sizing a priority after the Lovie Smith speed-based era, and Emery was not entirely off in determining that the Bears needed to get bigger and more physical.
But the adjusting of Bears personnel to what projects as a somewhat different offensive scheme in particular is ongoing. To wit, something as minimally significant as rookie minicamp: The roster for minicamp includes seven defensive linemen, with only one (tryout-player Corey Thomas from Northern Illinois, 304 pounds) listed above 300 pounds. The other six are an average of 286 pounds.
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More intriguing and to the Matt Nagy point, the 12 offensive linemen in camp average 301.9 pounds – and that includes tryout lineman Jeremi Hall from South Florida at 340 pounds. Excluding Hall, the average for the other 11 is a strikingly diminutive 298.5 pounds per man.
Within that group, an interesting case study:
Iowa offensive lineman James Daniels was the Bears’ No. 2 pick, projected to play guard at 306 pounds, down from Josh Sitton’s 320-plus. Daniels said Saturday he is at 310, about the same size as Whitehair. Daniels has not been assigned a target weight just yet, an indication of the staff’s flexibility on finding the right slots for Daniels and Whitehair in particular.
Daniels may not have been given his goal weight, but the Bears list Daniels at, not 306, not 310, but 295 – which just happens to be the same weight of Daniels’ football role model, Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro center Jason Kelce. He’s not 295, and is expected to add mass under the Bears’ strength-and-conditioning program, but…
NFL
Kelce is among the smallest centers in the NFL at 295 pounds and was a game-one starter as an Eagles rookie in 2011 and again in 2012. Philadelphia’s offensive quality coach in Kelce’s first two seasons: Matt Nagy.
“[Kelce’s] an undersized guy,” Daniels said. “He’s way smaller than me. But just the way, how his technique, he has to be perfect in his technique or he’s gonna get beat, just because he’s not big enough or strong enough. The way he plays, especially in pass protection, the way he shoots his hands, is probably the best in the NFL. I really appreciate the way, how he plays.”
And how they play is ultimately the only point of import. The Bears had no starting offensive lineman smaller than Charles Leno (305) last season. The Kansas City offensive line while Nagy was coordinator was in fact a shade bigger than the Bears’ of last season, although injuries make it problematic to settle on a “normal” for the Bears’ offensive line.
“I think some young offensive linemen and some veteran offensive linemen that have a chance to be great,” offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said this spring. “And any time you have transition, you don’t know until you know."