The Chicago Bears offensive line had a lot of concerns surrounding it as 2020 began. It performed far below expectations last season. Their run blocking was among the NFL’s worst and the pass protection could best be called leaky. Their response to fixing the issue wasn’t exactly sweeping. Four of the starters from last season would remain in place. The only exception would be free agent Germain Ifedi taking over at right guard.

Head coach Matt Nagy’s big shift would come on the coaching staff. He replaced offensive line coach Harry Hiestand with longtime NFL veteran Juan Castillo. It was felt his approach to the game was exactly what the Bears needed. Somebody focused on the details and who instilled a physical mindset in his players.

The results thus far have been far beyond expectations. Chicago is 9th in rushing so far this season, topping at least 135 yards each of their first two games. However, this has made it easy to overlook how good the pass protection has been. According to ESPN, the Bears have two blockers ranked among the best in the league in pass block win rate this year.

One is right tackle Bobby Massie and the other is left guard James Daniels.

Chicago Bears have set the tone thus far in 2020

It holds up as a unit too. The Bears rank second overall in pass block win rate to start the year at 77%, trailing only the Green Bay Packers. Statistically, it’ll say they’ve given up five sacks thus far, but that’s misleading. Three of them can be directly attributed to quarterback Mitch Trubisky holding the ball too long and allowing pressure to settle in. Their protection has indeed been noteworthy.

Will it continue to hold up? That is the big question. The Bears play some good pass rushes in the coming weeks. Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, and New Orleans stand out as particularly big challenges just looking over the next few weeks. If these guys are for real, then they’ll continue to deliver against those opponents.