Bears' trio projected to be most important non-quarterback for 2025 season

The 2024 NFL season did not go at all as expected for Chicago Bears fans, and a large portion of the blame rests with what was yet another abysmal season for the offensive line. There's no need to rehash history, but rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked a historic 68 times, and a lot of that was due to unblocked defenders coming right at him.

That shouldn't be the case in 2025. GM Ryan Poles devoted a significant amount of resources to retooling the interior of the O-line this offseason, which was by far the biggest problem on the unit. He got things started by trading for guard Jonah Jackson, who has played under head coach Ben Johnson before. A week after that, Poles made his biggest splash move of the season by trading for 4-time All-Pro guard Joe Thuney, then capped off his efforts by signing the best available center in free agency, Drew Dalman.

Chicago is expected to get an immediate return on investment from this trio of blockers, and it's for that reason that one NFL analyst picked them collectively as the most important non-quarterback for the Bears in 2025. Jared Dubin, who covers the NFL for CBS Sports, compiled a list of each team's most important player apart from the quarterback, and for the Bears, he went with the entire interior O-line.

Justifying this selection, Dubin had this to say about Thuney, Dalman, and Jackson: "If it all comes together how the Bears envision it doing so, they can more reasonably replicate the formula that new head coach Ben Johnson developed during his time with the Lions. The Bears presumably won't have the best line in the league like those Lions did, but they weren't going to be able to do anything Johnson wanted to do if they didn't make significant changes this offseason. They did make those changes, though, and now things have a chance to be much different for them than they were a year ago."