What Ryan Poles layering 30 visits for offensive linemen suggests

There is only one real certainty at this point regarding the Bears draft and this is how important GM Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson believe offensive line depth to be.

Johnson spelled it out during the combine and the Bears really have only Ryan Bates as an experienced depth piece on the line heading into the draft. It all shows up in their 30 visits being slated or those already made.

“Last few years it ends up being six, seven, eight, nine guys end up playing significant number of snaps,” Johnson said of the line. “We’ve got to find those five best guys, but we also have to get a good bullpen, if you will, ready to go in at a moment’s notice.”

One of Poles’ aims heading into every draft is to give himself options in every round and with positions deemed absolutely necessary. It’s apparent from their 30 visits they deem finding this depth to be critical because he is slating visits with linemen at each level of the draft and, at least from those visits reported so far, they’ve really only had a similar amout of interest in depth at a few other positions—running back and defensive line.

Whether it’s tackle or guard doesn’t matter. In many cases it’s one in the same because they’re looking at tackles as players who could be guards.

It appears to be the aim with interest being shown in Cincinnati Bearcats offensive lineman John Williams. Houston-based NFL reporter Aaron Wilson reported Williams visited the Bears, but it’s not a “top-30” visit per se.

It’s a local visit, much like last year’s visit with tackle Kiran Amegadjie was or like the visit the Bears have this year with Addison West from Western Michigan. It’s a local visit because Williams is a 6-foot-5, 320-pound Bolingbrook High graduate.

It’s still a visit and there is interest.

Williams started every game the last two seasons for Cincinnati and had 27 overall starts. Last year Pro Football Focus graded him fourth among all the Big 12 tackles in pass blocking, and in the top 13.7% nationally. He allowed one QB hit and one sack over 461 pass blocks.

Williams played only at left tackle for Cincinnati and had a 40-yard combine time of 5.17 seconds with a solid 29 reps on the bench press.

Arm length seems to be the big concern for personnel people with tackles and Williams didn’t hit the desired 34-inch length but was closer than top tackle prospects like Will Campbell. Williams came in at 33-7/8 inches. He has enormous 11-inch hands and scouts talked about his ability to get them on the pass rushers.

Pro Football Focus ranks Williams 195th on the PFF top 300 prospect board, which puts him somewhere in Round 6. NFL Mock Draft Dataase has him at 250 overall, or an undrafted free agent, and Drafttek.com has him 297th.

This is where the Poles interest in drafting depth for the line comes into focus. He has been layering his options.

Obviously they’ve had interest in Campbell, and had him for a 30 visit. Another Halas Hall visitor was Josh Conerly Jr. from Oregon, a player projected as a second-round pick if not late first.

A visit was slated for Jonah Savaiinaa, the Arizona 6-4, 324-pounder who might be their best option for a swing role on the line. Savaiinaa split time between left tackle and right tackle last year, 345 at left and 364 at right.

However, in the previous years he was a starting right guard and a starting right tackle. Besides his versatility, he was rated 90th on Pro Football Focus’ big board, which makes him third-round material.

Guard Dylan Fairchild of Georgia is graded by PFF as a potential sixth-round pick, like Williams, and had a 30 visit.

Addison West, another local player from Western Michigan, visited and is regarded by PFF, Drafttek.com and the NFL Mock Draft Database as a priority undrafted free agent.

The Bears had other local offensive linemen in for visits like NIU’s Cade Haberman, Northwestern’s Ben Wrather, Homewood-Flossmoor’s and Kansas’ Michael Ford Jr. and Minnesota State’s Marshall Foerner, who is from Plano, Ill.

At each possible level of drafting it’s apparent the Bears have had visits with players and that does represent interest. Added together, Poles is going to make sure and get his offensive line depth wherever he gets the opportunity.