| 23 February 2010
If you are to believe one football analyst the 2008 Chicago Bears had a pair of the best offensive guards in the NFL. K.C. Joyner a columnist came out with a break down of each offensive guard in the NFL and the job they did at the point of attack during the 2008 season and had Roberto Garza and Josh Beekman rated amongst the best guards in the NFL.
Joyner is most famous however for his statement that Jay Cutler would remind most Bears fans of Rex Grossman, rather than the savior of the franchise that Bears fans made him out to be.
So with that in mind and Matt Forte's production behind Garza and Beekman it's not hard to give Joyner's statement a bit of credibility. Taken in context Beekman and Garza were solid run blockers in 2008, but the Bears wanted more size at the left guard spot in 2009. The size they aimed for was none other than free agent signee Frank Omiyale from the Carolina Panthers.
There is no bigger failure on the 2009 team than offensive guard Frank Omiyale. A converted offensive tackle who was inexplicably shifted to left guard with sometimes disastrous results during the early part of the season before being benched in favor of Josh Beekman. Omiyale couldn't run block, couldn't pass block, couldn't pull, couldn't combo block and then jump to the second level to take on a linebacker, couldn't do much of anything but make life miserable for Matt Forte and the running game.
Yet the Bears waited until after the sixth game of the season to finally bench him in favor of Josh Beekman. I called for his benching after the third game of the season, upon seeing his disastrous performance against the Seattle Seahawks. Beekman however didn't perform much better and was never really given the chance to gel with his line mates on the first team, before being benched in favor of Omiyale again. The two man shuffle at the left guard spot clearly hurt the chemistry and the production of the 2009 offensive line.
Omiyale was pushed around often times he was clearly overwhelmed in his head to head match ups. Ironically though when called upon to start again at the left guard spot in tandem with Chris Williams at the left tackle spot the offensive line as a whole played better together than it had all season. Omiyale actually improved his play during the final four games of the season, it wasn't a major jump in his production, but it was arguably enough improvement that if the Bears decide to keep him at left guard in 2010 and he plays at that same level the offense as a whole may be better off.
The key thing with Omiyale was that he was a better pass blocker in 2009 than he was a run blocker which benefits his chances of remaining a starter in the Mike Martz offense. With no clear offensive guard replacement for Omiyale, and a very thin offensive guard free agency class the only other option would be to draft Omiyale's replacement. The prospect of starting a fresh brand new rookie at the offensive guard spot isn't exactly comforting given the complex responsibilities offensive linemen have to deal with in the Mike Martz offense.
The main question is how well does Omiyale develop under the direction of new offensive line coach Mike Tice. To me Tice was brought in specifically to work with the young horses on the offensive line, Williams at the LT spot, Omiyale at the LG spot and Beekman at center. Omiyale is the oldest of the group at 27-years-old but he still won't be 30 by the end of his contract so if for some reason he was to develop into a better player he could wind up making a decent career in Chicago.
There could even be an argument made that the more pressing need is finding a developmental prospect at the right guard spot behind the aging and declining Roberto Garza.
To get an idea of just how bad Omiyale was, you can go inside the numbers Omiyale's three games starting were disastrous, as he was beaten time and again. Forte was never able to get going in the running game, and forget about getting room on the right side. My three game over view of Omiyale's performance reveals just how mightily he struggled. He earned a negative grade on 17 run plays and a positive grade only five times. On 22 other occasions Omiyale fought to a stand and was simply doing his job to a respectable level.
Over and over again it appeared that he wasn't even trying, not giving any effort or looked like was even learning or progressing from one week to the next.
His only solid game amongst the six he started at the beginning of the season was the Lions game. In that game he stepped up his play for the first time all season and had more positives than negatives. Game five was another disaster as he resorted back to his old habits and then week six he proved to play only slightly better than in week five and then was benched.
Arguably Lovie Smith's inadequacy as a coach was proven through those first six games that Omiyale started. Lovie defended Omiyale and his logic in defending Omiyale was that the team was 3-1 and had won more games than they had lost. Even though there was no semblance of a running game, and the pass protection on the left side was deplorable the Bears' record as a team didn't reflect the individual failures of Omiyale so Smith chose to stick with him in the hopes that he would improve.
Mercifully after week six he was benched in favor of Josh Beekman, finally the bleeding would stop right? Not so fast on that front either....Beekman struggled in his four games as well. He performed better than Omiyale but on the whole didn't do enough to improve the line with his performance. Beekman allowed a seven QB pressures and four QB hits during his four games. In run blocking he graded out in the negative in two games and just barely above average in one game and only above normal in one game. He committed only one penalty in the four games so overall he performed better than Omiyale did.
Quietly though Omiyale was inserted back into the starting line up for the final six games of the season. Over those final six games, ironically he wasn't noticed as much as he was during the first six games of the season. In other words his play improved, and he played better than he had all season long. Omiyale went from grading out negatively to grading out positively in five of the last six games of the season. Overall Omiyale allowed a total of 14 QB pressures through the 12 games he started as well as four QB hits.
Now the main question that needs to be answered is will Omiyale be back at the starting left guard spot in 2010? The likely answer to that question I feel is yes he will be back there at the LG spot if only because the offensive line unit that performed the best together in 2010 was the line up LT Williams, LG Omiyale, C Kreutz, RG Garza, RT Shaffer. The Bears' offense could have enough success in 2010 with that offensive line working together and growing together under Mike Tice that the Bears wouldn't have to do any major reshuffling or put themselves in a position to where they have to draft a replacement for either Omiyale at left guard or Shaffer at RT.
Keeping this line up allows the Bears to also draft and develop a player for the RT or RG spot instead immediately forcing a rookie to start. Given that the free agency market is for the most part bare of any solid or even average offensive line prospects the only next logical choice is starting a rookie, a line of thought that doesn't sit well from my perspective.
Meanwhile at the right guard spot Roberto Garza put together another solid but not spectacular season for the Bears. This has been Garza's career to a T, he hasn't ever put together a Pro-Bowl campaign he hasn't been considered amongst the top guards in the league but he's a guy you can count on to do his job. Garza always plays better than he plays poorly, 10 of the 16 games this season Garza graded out in positive fashion in both pass blocking and run blocking.
Taken individually Garza graded out positively in 12 games and only four games were below normal standards. In the negative range of the metrics system in the run blocking department. In pass protection Garza allowed 15 QB pressures and two QB hits on the season, not strong levels in pass protection, but acceptable nonetheless.
Garza may have a few years left in the tank given that he'll be only 31-years-old at the start of the season. My guess is he won't be losing his starting job anytime in the next three years which means if the Bears want to draft and develop a player behind Garza like they have done with Beekman for Olin Kreutz the 2010 draft may have that player available. The nice thing about offensive guards in the draft is that teams don't put as much value on those players as they do QBs, OTs, pass rushers, DTs etc. So some of the better offensive guards can fall in the draft into the range where the Bears can snatch up a prospect who could develop over the next three seasons and then be a starter for nine to ten years after that.
The wild card in the guard rotation however may be rookie Lance Louis who played well enough in the pre-season to earn a spot on the 53-man roster in 2009. While Louis wasn't among the active players the fact that a rookie drafted in the latter stages of the seventh round was able to come in and compete and make the team says a lot about his potential. The interesting thing will be to see how he develops under the direction of Tice, does he come and push for a starting job in camp? What will Tice's evaluation of him be and will he make the roster for a second year in a row?
Overall the 2009 offensive guard slot wasn't one to get excited about, through 12 games the offensive line itself was in a lot of trouble and only after the Bears made their final starting adjustments did things settle down.
However once things did settle down the unit performed well enough with Omiyale and Garza starting that there may be justification for going into 2010 with the same starters, yes even Omiyale manning the left guard spot.
At the end of the day it will be how Mike Tice evaluates the personnel on the offensive line, does he see Omiyale as a better tackle prospect? Did Omiyale show enough in five of the final six games of the season that Tice may actually be able to work with him at left guard? All those questions could be answered as soon as the draft rolls around but a more clear picture will take shape during mini-camp which starts in late May.
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