Thuney’s Deal Adds Security For The Bears’ Upgraded Line

While Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta, Jared Goff and the other guys who touch the ball are widely celebrated in Detroit, they’re hardly alone in celebrating touchdowns. The Lions wouldn’t be an offensive dynamo without linemen like Penei Sewell, Frank Ragnow, Taylor Decks and Graham Glasnow.

To the degree Ben Johnson is looking to create a similar offense in Chicago, he is counting on Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson and Drew Dalman to have that same kind of impact. The two-year extension of Thuney’s contract that was reported on Tuesday gives the Bears a chance to keep the interior of the offensive line together for three seasons.

In other words, general manager Ryan Poles is giving second-year quarterback Caleb Williams a fighting chance to use the skills that made him the first overall pick in 2024.

Poles not only acquired Thuney, Jackson and Dalman through trades or free agency since March but has lined them up with contracts that run through 2027, the final season on Williams’ rookie contract.

Dalman was simple. Poles merely outbid the competition to sign the 26-year-old center away from Atlanta, giving him a three-year, $42 million deal. The Bears traded for the 28-year-old Jackson, a former Detroit guard who was limited to four games in the first year of a three-year, $51 million deal with the Los Angeles Rams.

Poles reworked Jackson’s contract to add a non-guaranteed ’27 season (and you wonder if it will be adjusted again after this season, as it carries a ’26 salary cap hit is $25 million). But the heavy lifting came in extending Thuney. The 32-year-old All-Pro guard was due to be a free agent after ’25 but is adding two seasons at a total of $35 million to the contract that followed him from Kansas City.

Thuney will be 35 when his deal ends. Few guards maintain their fitness to play in the mid-30s but the Bears are counting on Thuney’s impeccable track record. He’s started 167 games in nine seasons, including 21 in the playoffs.

The two guards and center represent $44.39 million of the Bears’ salary cap between them, ranking among the seven most highly paid Bears. Only Montez Sweat, D.J. Moore, Naylor Johnson and Tremaine Edmunds will be more highly paid next season.

The focus for Poles and Johnson is to sort out the tackle situation ahead of the Monday Night Football opener against Minnesota.

Darnell Wright, the 10th overall pick in the 2023 draft, has started 33 of a possible 34 games at right tackle the last two seasons. The 333-pounder showed great improvement in his second season. Pro Football Focus ranked him 16th among 81 qualifying guards, with only eight (including Sewell) receiving a better run-blocking grade.

Left tackle became a major concern when Braxton Jones suffered a broken ankle last December. The fifth-round pick from Southern Utah University was a pleasant surprise as a rookie in 2022 and was graded out as the 21st best tackle last season by PFF. But he missed six games with injury in ’23 and faces a problematic recovery to bounce back from the broken ankle.

The Bears are studying a variety of options, including a move of Wright to left tackle. They’ll weigh of group of potential contributors including Jones, Yale product Kiran Amegadjie and the 6-foot-8 Ozzy Trapilo, a Boston College product drafted in the second round last month. Luke Newman, a sixth-round pick from Michigan State, was drafted as a guard but has the versatility to also handle reps at tackle.

For Trapilo and Newman, this is a chance to get in on the ground floor of a long-term project. The tackles should get a lot of help from the veterans playing alongside them.