Fishbain: Poles got really lucky with Braxton Jones and Teven Jenkins

The latest Bears Banter Podcast has dropped!

The Athetic’s Kevin Fishbain joins the podcast as we dive into the 2022 Chicago Bears team and look ahead to 2023.

Fishbain discusses Ryan Poles’ first rookie class, what this team needs to add in 2023 to start becoming competitive and he also looks at Justin Fields and where he’s at as a player and where he can potentially go.

Fishbain also broke down the offensive line this year and what he feels Poles needs to do to beef it up next year. But when discussing Fields’ development this year and the offensive line in front of him, Fishbain really focused on how fortunate Poles was to have this offensive line play as well as it has.

“Teven Jenkins has been a great revelation. Braxton Jones has been a great revelation,” Fishbain explained. “Could you imagine if those things didn’t happen? We’re talking about this offensive line needing three starters, that is with the fact that a fifth round pick out of Southern Utah has held his own at left tackle. And a guy who spent most of his college career and rookie season at tackle ended up playing really well for you at right guard. Nobody saw that coming with Teven Jenkins. If you told me on July 27th he would have played as well as he did, I would have said no way. I would have asked ‘For what team?’ That’s how crazy things were in late July. They got really lucky with those two.”

Fishbain makes a great point. The run blocking on the offensive line has been good, and while the pass blocking hasn’t exactly been stellar, could you imagine what it would have been like if Jones played more like a fifth round rookie and Jenkins couldn’t handle the transition? They would have been in deep trouble.

It’s a great conversation with Kevin so check it out, plus, I guarantee you’ve never heard an airport story like this one, check out a jam-packed podcast!

You can check out the interview segment on our 2nd City Gridiron video channel here.