So much for a captivating off-season capped by a new Chicago Bears starting lineup. It won’t happen, at least not according to former Bears offensive line officer Kyle Long.
Long gave this hot perspective Wednesday about what will likely come in the ever-haunting story of Chicago’s search for a defender.
“I don’t think they’ll be able to do what they want to do in the draft as a defender,” Long said of the Bears. “I think we will see Nick Foles, with a complete off-season behind him, being the starting defender. Obviously, I think Mitch is going somewhere else. ”
Foles with a full offseason in the back does not suddenly make him a good starting defender. He doesn’t even make him an average starting defender. It makes him the same defender he always was: a calf who isn’t good enough to take a job for more than a season or two.
What Long fails to recognize in his Foles prediction is the urgency with which Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy work. I can’t risk another season of Foles collapsing in my pocket like a bundle of books. They need a solution; a legitimate upgrade. And Pace will do everything he can to do it, even if it means overpaying for a player like Derek Carr in the commercial market or rolling the dice on Jameis Winston in the free agency.
At this point, both players would give the Bears a better chance of winning 10 or more games in 2021. And it will take a season for Pace and Nagy to win another year in Chicago.