The Chicago Bears entered the offseason determined to improve the infrastructure around young quarterback Caleb Williams, particularly an offensive line that had him running for his life far too often in 2024. And they've wasted little time doing just that, acquiring guards Jonah Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams and Joe Thuney from the Kansas City Chiefs before the new league year even begins.
If there's anyone who knows the value of an elite offensive line, it's new head coach Ben Johnson, who built one of the league's most explosive attacks around one during his time with the Detroit Lions. He's clearly trying to do the same in Chicago, and Bears fans are no doubt excited to see what Williams can do when he has a little more trust in his protection.
But while Chicago's early flurry is grabbing a bunch of headlines, they don't hand out trophies for winning the offseason. And when the dust settles, there will still be a ton of questions left unanswered — for Bears GM Ryan Poles, for Johnson, and even for Williams himself.
Bears, Caleb Williams still have plenty of questions to answer after offensive line overhaul
Both Jackson and Thuney come with name recognition, as well as a ceiling that's far higher than anything the Bears had on the interior of their offensive line last season. But both also come with downside risk that made them available in the first place.
Jackson thrived under Johnson in Detroit, but he was largely a disaster with the Rams, and while injuries and position changes have something to do with that, the fact remains that we haven't seen him be a consistently plus guard over a full season in quite a while. Thuney, meanwhile, is set to turn 33 in November, and he's entering the final year of his contract — meaning Chicago will either be renting him or they'll have to sign him to a new extension that might not age all that well.
Both players figure to be better than what Chicago had before, but it's fair to wonder whether this is the wisest allocation of the team's resources ... or whether it's just a desperate front office on tilt to try and save its own skin. This is a roll of the dice, one that might bust if age and/or injury rear their heads at the wrong time.
And of course, with great expectations come great responsibility. Williams didn't exactly emerge unscathed from an up-and-down rookie season, but a lot of his struggles were explained away due to the dysfunction around him. But now, with Johnson at the helm and some big-name additions protecting him, he's running out of excuses. And if there's anyone who's going to force him to be accountable, it's Johnson.
"That's something that we're going to address," Johnson said at the NFL Combine last week, when asked about whether Williams had been coached hard enough in 2024. "I can't help myself. I'm going to be very blunt and very honest in how my version of the truth [is], I guess you could say, going forward. And so is the coaching staff. They know the task at hand."
This is the sort of response that both Bears fans and Williams himself asked for this offseason. But there's no guarantee that they'll like the way it ends up nonetheless, and there's still a ton of work to be done.