A lot of LOL self shoulder patting here. I saw this extension coming since the end of last season, for a few reasons.
Teacher's pet
Jody loves Schneider, from his and hers matching shirts to crowning Schneider as PRESIDENT of football operations. A title Pete never enjoyed.
Reading dot net
I am not sure if my posts sprouted the above love or merely fortified that love, especially my posts on Schneider's approach on fixing our OL. Public opinions count, and Jody needs the 12s on dot net to have her back when she makes major decisions. She got that from us.
OL
How Schneider fix our OL is a master class on NFL GMing, here, I am gonna repeat myself:
We had two teams that suffered from protection issues. Chicago Bears' 2024 OL was rated at #24 by PFF, and ours at #31. The solutions by the coaching staff and front office of the franchises were polar opposite.
Bears
They identified the IOL as the problem and they signed FA IOL players to improve their line.
Signed:
Drew Dalman C, 3 years, $42 million PFF 78.8
Jonah Jackson G, $12.5 mil PFF 67.5
Joe Thuney G, $35 mil PFF 79.9
Drafted:
2nd round 56th Ozzy Trapilo OT
6th round 195th Luke Newman OT
Hawks
We identify the culprits as Geno Smith, SK Metcalf, and Tyler Lockett. All gone from the organization, cleansed. We didn't sign any IOL of note, but we used our 1st-round pick on a versatile 5-position lineman.
We signed:
Josh Jones OT 1 year, $4.75 million, PFF 43.2. A true low-end journeyman.
Drafted:
1st 18th Grey Zabel G
6th 192th Bryce Cabeldue OT
7th 234th Mason Richman OT
See the differences? We went to the root cause and pulled rotten teeth. The Bears? Bandaids. The two Schneiders, Macdonald, and Kubiak all have great confidence in our IOL.
New coming out of the Bears camp? Celab Willima still sucks, and money wasted on IOL didn't help.