3 positions the Chicago Bears need to address in the 2023 NFL Draft
By Jalen Wilson
3. Offensive Line
The Chicago Bears front office views Justin Fields as their franchise quarterback, But to keep him healthy, you have to be able to protect him from getting sacked. Last season Fields was sacked 55 times, tied for most in the NFL with Russell Wilson. This also resulted in Fields getting injured and limping in pain as the season went on.
So the pass-block for the bears was terrible, but the run-blocking was better than what people expected—having a run-block win rate of 74%, ranking 5th in the NFL. But this offensive line still needs help at left guard, center, left tackle, and right tackle.
With Cody Whitehair and Sam Mustipher having rocky seasons at left guard and center, the front office might look to replace them. In the draft at guard, you have O’Cyrus Torrence out of UCLA and Andrew Vorhees out of USC. There are more guards in this draft, but those are the top two options for most people. Luke Wypler (Ohio St) and John Michael Schmitz (Minnesota) are the top players in the draft at center; since center is a position usually picked on days two or three, the Bears may be able to choose one of these two players.
For the Best of both worlds, Chicago can draft Peter Skoronski out of Northwestern, and he plays both left tackle and left guard. Tackle is a stacked position in this class with players such as Paris Johnson Jr (Ohio St), Dawand Jones (Ohio St), Broderick Jones (Georgia), and Cody Mauch (North Dakota St), to name a few. The Bears will probably pick one of these players, and they can’t go wrong with their choice.
It will be interesting to see what the Chicago Bears do in this year’s draft; they might not go after all three of these positions because they have cap space to fill positional needs.