Building the Board: Talking through (more) Offensive Linemen

Nobody in today’s NFL succeeds without investing in their offensive line, so in all likelihood that’s exactly what the Chicago Bears will do at some point in the 2023 NFL Draft — the question is, how early will they invest? And who will they choose?

We’ve already talked through several of the early-round targets that the Bears may look to add, but Ryan Poles has shown he’s willing to hunt for Offensive Linemen in the lower rounds — let’s break a few of their potential targets down.

For several months now, the WCG crew has been working hard on a simple idea: building a Chicago Bears draft board brick-by-brick in an attempt to create as authentic a draft board as possible while tailoring it specifically to one team (rather than the scheme-free evaluations that are so common around the internet).

We’ve been scouting the players available in the 2023 NFL Draft, and we’ll continue to do so, with the end game being a fully-fledged Draft Board. Today we talk through our next batch of player grades — specifically, these 8 Interior Defensive Linemen:

Remember, this list isn’t in order of quality/ranking! Simply order of appearance!

• Wisconsin’s Joe Tippmann (Center)
• Ohio State’s Luke Wypler (Center)
• Arkansas’ Ricky Stromberg (Center)
• UCLA’s Jon Gaines II (Guard)
• Maryland’s Spencer Anderson (Guard)
• LSU’s Anthony Bradford (Guard)
• Oklahoma’s Anton Harrison (Tackle)
• Baylor’s Connor Galvin (Tackle)
• North Carolina’s Asim Richards (Tackle)

Our initial Draft Board (1.0) will be on a Google Document that we’ll share here as soon as it’s done, and keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks — we’ll be adding players to it in batches of 10 as we try to show the process of how draft boards shuffle week-by-week.

We’re excited! We want to hear your thoughts — do you agree with today’s grades? Do you disagree? Let us know!

Podcast version is available here:

And in case you missed the original introduction video for Building the Board, check it out below for an overview of the project!