Perfectly Average: How Charles Leno Jr. became one of the Chicago Bears’ most misunderstood players

As the Chicago Bears’ disappointing 2019 season came to a close, I, like pretty much every other Bears fan on the planet, found myself searching for the “why” behind the great disaster that was this 8-8 year. Certainly some of the blame falls on the quarterback, and injuries to players like Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, and Danny Trevathan (turns out we were fine there, thanks Nick and Kevin!) didn’t help, but the Bears’ offensive line was an obvious issue throughout the season, especially when running the ball (29th DVOA), and you’d have to expect that there’ll be changes up front before they take the field again in 2020.

But who specifically do you replace? Which spots were weakest throughout the year? If you ask 3 different Bears fans, you may very well get three different answers — one will tell you that Center was the problem, another will point to the right side of the line, and the 3rd fan will let out a sigh and blame a player that’s become a popular scapegoat over the last few weeks, Charles Leno Jr.

“He’s lazy”, I’ve heard, “He signed his contract and checked out. The Bears should look to replace him.”

These are intense claims, if true, so in my latest breakdown video I set out to investigate — Was Charles Leno the problem he’s being made out to be on the Bears’ offensive line? What should we reasonably expect from our team’s left tackle? And if the Bears’ do look to replace him, how likely is it that the newcomer actually will be an improvement? I watched a ton of film, wrote ~4,800 words, and am now confident that in this video I can answer those three questions. Check it out below and let me know what you think!

Now it’s your turn — what did you think of Leno’s 2019 play? What were the Bears’ problems on the offensive line? And do you think they’re fixable by 2020?