For all the key additions the Chicago Bears have made last offseason, from Nahshon Wright down to rookies like Colston Loveland and Luther Burden III, Jone Thuney might well be the most important player
the franchise added to its ranks this year.
After years of question marks along the offensive line, new stalwarts Thuney, Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson led a revival of the team’s performance up front, paving the way for a run game that has ground opponents into the turf and given second-year quarterback Caleb Williams protection he could only have dreamt of last season.
But few have Bears have stood out more than Thuney, whose efforts have put him on every Pro Bowl and All-Pro watchlist NFL pundits can devise. The latest one: ESPN.
“The most important and reliable part of Chicago’s resurgent run game this season, Thuney was every bit the player the Bears hoped to acquire when they sent a fourth-round pick to the Chiefs this offseason,“ wrote ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. ”He ranks fourth in the league in run block win rate and leads all guards in pass block win rate, all while continuing his habit of virtually never coming off the field. Thuney has missed just five snaps all season.
“Thuney has the league’s lowest quick pressure rate and is one of two guards who played more than 400 pass-blocking snaps without allowing a single sack this season, per Next Gen Stats. The other one, of course, was [fellow Barnell All-Pro guard Quenton] Nelson.”
In short: when Joe Thuney is on the football field, he’s one of the best players on it. And he almost never comes off the field.
On top of that, the 10th-year pro practically never misses the playoffs. In fact, Thuney’s teams have won a division title in all but one season of his career—2020 with the freshly post-Tom Brady New England Patriots.
When Ryan Poles brought the 32-year-old guard to the Bears, he no doubt hoped that veteran leadership and championship pedigree would elevate a team lacking winning DNA for much of the past two decades. Not only has that proven true, but Thuney still has plenty left in the tank on the field, playing a level that will almost assuredly net him an All-Pro nod and has already earned him his fourth straight Pro Bowl honor this year. It’s hard to think of any guard aside from Nelson who deserves it more.
Hopefully, that’s not the only hardware Thuney and the Bears will bring home this season.
