Two of the final remaining players from the Ryan Pace era have been given pink slips today by Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles.
The Chicago Bears have made two salary cap saving moves with the release of offensive lineman Cody Whitehair and safety Eddie Jackson. Both players were cut today in a move that will create approximately $21-million in new cap space.
Whitehair spent eight seasons with the Chicago Bears, switching multiple times between center and guard. Whitehair was moved to center for the 2023 season a wrong headed move on the part of GM Ryan Poles as the snapping issues that caused Whitehair to be moved back to guard quickly arose again. Whitehair was then forced back to guard where he played sparingly with the addition of Nate Davis and the move of Teven Jenkins to left guard.
The juggling of spots between center and guard and the piss poor signing of Nate Davis and failed signing of Lucas Patrick left the Chicago Bears interior offensive line a mess. It’s as if Poles never had a solid plan to shore up the interior of the offensive line because Patrick was atrocious, Whitehair couldn’t snap and Jenkins was better suited to play right guard, but Davis was brought into play right guard. The chaos that ensued definitely hurt the Chicago Bears in pass protection all year.
Ryan Poles will now have to add another starter capable player at center, plus additional quality offensive guard and offensive tackle depth this off-season. Yet again the offensive line mastermind has the tall task of adding at least three additional high level players along the offensive line for the 2024 season.
Eddie Jackson’s departure comes as absolutely no surprise as he never lived up to the huge season he had in year two when he took the NFL by storm with four touchdowns off of turnovers. Jackson was given a huge extension by Ryan Pace but never even remotely returned to Pro Bowl form. Jackson will likely find some interest on the open market but his large cap savings was not hard to see coming. If Poles is unable to sign Jaylon Johnson then he will be forced to add two new starters in the secondary for the 2024 season.
The only plus from the secondary was the rise in the number of turnovers this unit forced with the addition of Montez Sweat’s pass rush. But with no pass rush depth or threat anywhere else on the defensive line, the Chicago Bears could one nagging injury to Sweat away from the defense playing near the bottom of the NFL again in 2024.
Right now Poles is the master of the obvious, what he isn’t a master of developing some sort of roster stability. There will be a huge hole left behind with the departure of these two solid veterans. But finding a way to finally bring stability to the offensive line will be of utmost importance if the Bear decide on draft a rookie QB with the first overall pick.
The instability along the interior offensive line needs to be highly scrutinized ahead of the 2024 NFL season because with the draft capital and free agency capital Poles has yet to built a cohesive unit. His failure to develop an even competent offensive line should be highly watched given the difficulties of turning over the offensive line for a third straight year and then asking a rookie QB to play at a playoff level behind a completely retooled offensive line.
Clearly Poles needs to do something big with the additional cap space. The price tag for not extending Jaylon Johnson just went up in a big way. The unneeded risk of instability within two key position groups is inexcusable for a GM heading into his third year of trying to fix a franchise.
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