Bears O-Line Chemistry May Take Half the Season, Says Coach Ben Johnson

One of the great mysteries of NFL offensive play is how long an offensive line needs to mesh into a cohesive unit.

A group playing as one is necessary. It's rare when this sort of thing happens immediately, and the Bears face this issue starting next week with OTAs and then going on into training camp and the regular season.

When you've brought in three new starters in Drew Dalman, Jonah Jackson and Joe Thuney, and might even have another new starter at left tackle if Braxton Jones' injury remains an issue, it makes for a difficult situation.

Bears coach Ben Johnson offered up an opinion on how long this might take this season while making an appearance Thursday on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.

It might not be what Bears fans would like or anticipate.

"I think that's going to be the challenge here during training camp is how quickly can we come together," Johnson told Cowherd. "They're really bonding as a unit right now communication-wise but we don't have the pads on. I think we need the pads on before we truly start jelling together."

Basically, the offseason work is not going to do it. They can't put pads on until training camp.

"Training camp is going to be critical for us," Johnson told Cowherd.

It won't be training camp, either.

"I actually like where that bye week is because it usually takes about four weeks into the season to find out who you are as a team and what you do well and what you don't do well and then that is at a good time so we can reflect on it as a coaching staff to really hone in on what we want to be for that remaining three-quarters of the season," Johnson said.

The bye week is in Week 5, so it's that late?

"I would say my experience has been when you get a new group together it could take up to half the season before they really start to mesh and come together in terms of the run game more so than pass pro," Johnson said. "I think we should be a pretty good pass pro unit right off the jump, but that run game, the communication, the angles with which we're all going, trusting each other particularly in the wide-zone scheme that we're installing right now in OTAs, that's something that we want to make sure that we get plenty of time on task on."

Half the season seems like forever to get a running attack going.

It doesn't always work this way. It did for Johnson in 2023 when they had a solid group that was somewhat different than the previous season. They averaged 118.4 yards rushing through seven games, then kicked it into gear and averaged 148.2 yards the rest of the way

The previous year, though, they had been averaging 146.7 yards on the ground after six games with a line that was different.

The Bears have to hope they have the same fortune as run blockers the 2022 Lions line did in rushing better right away.

At least Johnson doesn't think it will take long for the pass blocking to come around.