The Plan for Jason Spriggs

Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic reviews things he would have been looking for in a normal, non-pandemic OTA. What he said about the situation at right tackle caught my attention:

Bobby Massie’s contract guaranteed his spot on the 2020 team, but that won’t be the case in 2021. If he can’t play as he did in 2018, Jason Spriggs could challenge him for a job. He’s the best other option the Bears currently have at tackle.

This is the first mention I’ve heard from anyone that Spriggs might have a chance to compete for a starting job and win it.

The Spriggs signing was interesting to me just because I wondered what the Bears were seeing that maybe the Packers didn’t over the last 4 years.

The Packers drafted Spriggs for his athleticism but soon found that he was being pushed around too much at the line of scrimmage. As a result, they asked him to gain weight  and he put on about 20 pounds. This not only resulted in the loss of some of the aforementioned athleticism but he was still being beaten by power rushers.

So I’ll be curious to see if the Bears have a plan for Spriggs. Perhaps they just liked him in 2016 and have decided to give him a shot. Or perhaps they’ll allow him to lose the weight and find a way to better utilize his athleticism.

If it’s the former, I’d say that there isn’t much of a chance that Spriggs will be starting at tackle for the Bears. But things could get interesting if it’s the latter.

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