Chicago Bears: Who Starts The Season at Right Guard?

With all the movements made concerning the offensive line, the Chicago Bears still don’t know who ends up starting the season at right guard?

The Chicago Bears are in rebuild mode. They spent the season completely overhauling the roster. New general manager Ryan Poles had to fix the problems that former general manager Ryan Pace left him.

One of the biggest messes Poles encountered was the offensive line. The line struggled again last season. It seems we say the same thing about the unit every season. Poles said he would make it a priority to rebuild the unit, though.

Once free agency, and later, the draft started, did he do enough to address the line? Lucas Patrick looks like a good pickup at center. However, there weren’t any big upgrades to the line. It appears as if the Bears will start the season with two green second-year bookend tackles, Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom. They both suffered injuries that cut down their rookie seasons. Cody Whitehair will remain the left guard.

That leaves a gaping hole at right guard. The previous starter, James Daniels, walked via free agency. He cashed in and joined his former teammate, Mitchell Trubisky, to go to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Who replaces Daniels?

Despite not knowing exactly where Jenkins and Borom will play (they both played the left and right tackle spots in voluntary workouts recently), we know they’ll each be at tackle in some fashion.

What we don’t know is who replaces Daniels at right guard.

Yes, the Bears have a small village of linemen. Poles’ thought process must be that having as much competition as possible will bring out the players’ best efforts and make them better.

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So who do the Bears have to battle for the right guard job? I won’t go with any of the rookies. Unless one just plays completely lights out the best we can expect from the rookies is to add depth. Furthermore, with two players already playing while still being green, I don’t think the Bears add another one.

Looking at ESPN.com, they have Dakota Dozier listed as the starting right guard. That would be a disaster. Dozier played the entire 2020 season with the Minnesota Vikings. He did so bad that in 2021 he spent most of the season on the practice squad. He did get in six games, but all of them were on special teams. To go from playing every offensive snap one year to zero offensive snaps the next shows how bad you really are.

The Bears signed him, however, so they’ll take a deep look at him. If he ends up starting then we know the offensive line problems are worse than we imagined.

Thankfully, there are other places that disagree. Ourlads.com has Sam Mustipher as the starter. In 2021, Mustipher struggled as the center. However, a change in position could do him some good. He did have a solid season in 2020 so he has it in him to get the job done.

Poles also signed Julie’n Davenport. Davenport, though, is similar to Dozier in play. He played for the Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins, and Indianapolis Colts in his five seasons as a pro. He’s had trouble with penalties. In one season he had an astounding 12 penalties called against him. 

As we see, these three players don’t exactly elicit hope. They each struggled to keep a job. As a result, each player feels some desperation to do well. This could very well be it for any of them if they fail with the Chicago Bears. They haven’t impressed much in their time in the NFL, so if they fail again they could be looking for a non-NFL job.

That sort of desperation might have them play at a higher level. Knowing that the chopping block is imminent forces you to up your game. We’ll see what happens once training camp and the preseason begin. Does one player step up and win the job, or is Poles forced to look for help from outside the roster? These are the things that make this training camp an interesting one.