Bears ‘Must Target’ 96-Game Starter Amid Nate Davis Concerns

Getty Free agent offensive lineman Mark Glowinski.

The Chicago Bears are battling several offensive line injuries heading into the second week of the 2024 NFL preseason. Three of their starters — Nate Davis, Teven Jenkins and Darnell Wright — did not practice in their most recent session on August 4, raising questions about whether Chicago has enough depth.

Could the Bears turn to veteran Mark Glowinski to answer some of those questions?

ESPN’s Dan Graziano visited the Bears’ training camp in Lake Forest and noted how frequently injuries have forced them to shift the interior of their offensive line in the past few weeks. He told fans to “watch for the team to probe the market a bit if and when a center or guard becomes available as cuts come in.”

Taking Graziano’s words and running with them, Bleacher Report’s Joe Tansey pitched the possibility of the Bears acting sooner rather than later to solve their line issues and signing Glowinski — a 96-game interior starter — at a “bargain” to bolster their depth. He played 29 games for the New York Giants over the past two years, starting 22 games.

“Mark Glowinski has nine years of experience playing guard in the NFL and he could be a solid option to bring in if the Bears are not impressed with Davis,” Tansey wrote in an August 5 story on “free agents the Bears must target.” “Glowinski’s stock is not very high right now because of how the New York Giants’ offensive line played as a whole last season, but in terms of experience, it is hard to find more than Glowinski.”

Would Mark Glowinski Upgrade Bears’ Depth Much?

Glowinski is one of the better interior offensive linemen on the market in early August and has played more than 5,100 career snaps at right guard, where the Bears currently need the most help on their offensive line. The Bears have said that Davis will remain their starter when he returns from his “strain” injury, but adding Glowinski would give them more security behind Davis and give their O-line room a 32-year-old mentor.

Just how much could the Bears trust someone like Glowinski, though?

Davis performed below expectations during his first season with the Bears in 2023, but Glowinski did not have much success last season, either. After starting 16 games at right guard in 2022, Glowinski opened the 2023 season in the spot, but the Giants benched him as a starter after he gave up 3 sacks and 9 pressures in their season opener.

Glowinski played a decreased rotational role for the next three games (though, he did not play at all in Week 3) before injuries prompted the Giants to bump him back up. He then started four games — two at left guard, two at right guard — out of necessity from Week 5 to Week 8 before missing three games with an unspecified personal matter.

When Glowinski returned to the lineup in Week 12, the Giants acted like he didn’t exist. He played just 27 total offensive snaps over the next five games before playing every snap in the bottomed-out Giants’ season finale, giving up 6 pressures but no sacks.

Glowinski has been a quality interior protector in the past, but it is debatable whether he has any gas left in the tank for 2024. Even at a bargain, the Bears may simply pass.

Could Matt Pryor Play Bigger Role Than Expected in 2024?

The Bears are currently scrambling to fill their offensive line spots. They called upon 27-year-old guard Bill Murray and second-year guard Jerome Carvin to take snaps with the first-team offense during August 4’s practice and could be forced to roll forward with both of them if neither Davis nor Jenkins returns to the field expeditiously.

If the early camp returns are any indication, though, the Bears might be able to rely on veteran offensive tackle Matt Pryor to bolster their guard depth during the 2024 season.

Pryor — who signed a one-year, veteran-minimum deal with the Bears in free agency — has shown promise at both guard and tackle during the first few weeks of camp. While he is currently filling in for the injured Wright at right tackle, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has lauded his versatility and his impressive size at 6-foot-7, 332 pounds.

“He’s a massive individual,” Eberflus said on August 3. “So if you put him inside, I think it’s really good because [the] inside pocket will be firm and that type of thing. He can really anchor up in there, which is great for a quarterback. The hardest pushes [are from] the inside that affects him the fastest, so that benefits us there, competition-wise and also depth-wise. And then on the outside edge, I think he’s pretty decent there too.

“It’s good to have that positional flexibility to be able to move him around when we need to and also compete for jobs, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”