Chicago Bears training camp: 6 Players hurt by not having a preseason
2 and 3. Rashaad Coward, Alex Bars, Offensive Guards
Okay, this one is a two-for-one deal. The Chicago Bears have a big hole to fill with the retirement of right guard Kyle Long. Long was the heart and soul of the offensive line and a leader in the locker room. The line doesn’t have to worry about replacing him as a leader as it appears that center Cody Whitehair takes the mantel.
The team still needs to replace Long on the field. Even though he missed a lot of games during his last four seasons, when he was on the field he was an excellent player.
The Bears have a legitimate three-way battle for Long’s replacement. Rashaad Coward was the starter in Long’s place last season. He was a converted defensive lineman and wasn’t expected to play so much in 2019.
Alex Bars is a second-year player who spent most of last season on the practice squad before getting promoted late in the season. He is a talented player who tore his ACL/MCL his senior season at Notre Dame. He was considered one of the top guard prospects before the injury.
The Bears signed Germain Ifedi as a free agent. He was the Seattle Seahawks’ first-round pick (31st overall) in the 2016 NFL draft. He came to the league as a guard but the Seahawks moved him over to right tackle after his rookie season. He struggled as a tackle but did well at guard.
If there is a good bet on who wins it would be Ifedi. Ifedi is 6-5 and weighs 325 pounds and is as strong as an ox. He wasn’t athletic enough to take on speed rushers on the edge but he’ll do fine at guard. He does a good job of moving bodies around. He’ll do a good job of opening up holes for the running backs and can stop rushers in traffic.
The Bears probably want Ifedi to return to the success he had at guard. He has the size and strength to do well and has more experience than the others.
The three players will rotate but Bars and Coward need to perform a notch better to try to beat out Ifedi. People still have the memory of Coward’s struggle as a starter and Bars has to show he’s over his injuries so both need to overcome those perceptions.
Ifedi is in the best position to win the starting job and the other two have a steep hill to climb to beat him out.