Concerns regarding the Chicago Bears offensive line began months ago during the offseason and they haven’t really gone away since. The unit wasn’t all that great last year, though to be fair injuries played a part in some of that. With new quarterbacks coming in, the team was under pressure to get the front five squared away. One of their moves involved bringing back Germain Ifedi to be their starting right tackle.

This was a somewhat unusual decision. Ifedi had played right tackle for most of his time in Seattle. When he arrived in Chicago last season, it was to become a guard. That is where he played for the first 10 games. However, as mentioned earlier injuries started to hit. This necessitated the Bears making some adjustments. One of them was moving Ifedi back outside to right tackle. It worked, for the most part. The line stabilized enough to secure three wins in the final four games to reach the playoffs.

While a capable emergency measure, was it wise to stick with him this year?

In his six games last season, Ifedi allowed six pressures and a sack on the quarterback. He also committed three penalties. He did finish strong, with a clean run through the last three games. Though two of them were against league-worst defenses. Now after returning from a hip flexor that knocked him out most of training camp? Ifedi didn’t exactly impress. Despite facing Tennessee Titans backups, he allowed a sack, a pressure, and committed a penalty on just 14 pass block snaps.

To be fair this was his first live action in months and he was coming off a hip injury. So some rust can be expected. Still, to look so ineffective in that game doesn’t bode well for the Bears. Their alternatives at right tackle in the form of Elijah Wilkinson and Lachavious Simmons have looked even worse.

Germain Ifedi doesn’t have the luxury of time

The Bears face the best defense in the NFL right out of the gate is Los Angeles. Ifedi will see lots of Leonard Floyd who had two sacks against them last year. Then two weeks later he is likely to get plenty of doses of Myles Garrett in Cleveland. If Ifedi isn’t on top of his game, he is liable to get Andy Dalton killed before the season even begins. With Teven Jenkins destined for Injured Reserve, the team doesn’t have any alternatives unless they switch Larry Borom back to right tackle after playing him at left tackle all summer.

Offensive line coach Juan Castillo remains confident in Germain Ifedi. He even said the veteran is capable of reaching the Pro Bowl. The talent has always been there. He was a 1st round pick for a reason. The problem has always been consistency. He’d have two or three really good games in a row and then take a significant dip over the next few weeks.

Can he overcome that problem in his sixth season?

The Bears need him to. Head coach Matt Nagy is under a ton of pressure to produce a viable offense in 2021. He’ll need decent blocking to pull it off. Ifedi will be a major part of that. The tackle has two more weeks to round himself into shape before real action begins.