Charles Leno Jnr - talking to a Bear

With the addition of Charles Leno Jnr, former Chicago Bear, the Washington Football team continue to add depth to the OL unit. Leno has suited up for 16 games a season, every season, from 2015 to 2020.

Here at UKHTTW, we took a 3 and out with David Usher, long-time Bears fan and founder of Uncle Sam Sports.

David, on the surface, WFT have picked up a solid performer in Leno on a one-year $5m deal?

Solid is probably the right word.

Steady would be another. Leno did ok in Chicago. Better than ok when you consider he was only a 7th round draft pick and held down a starting job for around six seasons.

He was never close to being the Bears’ biggest problem but he wasn’t really the solution either. The Bears always had more pressing needs on the line than replacing him but he was never regarded as the long term solution and it wasn’t that much of a surprise when they let him go.

Given his serviceability and experience, what is the main reason the Bears let him walk?

There are nine million reasons.

The Bears don’t have much cap room at all and having moved up to draft a tackle in the second round, the logical thing to do was to let Leno go and free up some cap space to strengthen other areas.

Had the money not been an issue I doubt they’d have been in a hurry to let him leave as he’s been dependable and durable. The Bears also took a tackle in round five too though, so Leno became one of the more expendable veterans.

With his 93 consecutive starting appearances, do you feel Chicago might come to regret this decision?

Possibly, but the Bears have had far more regretful departures than Charles Leno.

Even if he has a stellar season in Washington it’s doubtful that many Bears fans will be lamenting his departure too much, not least because linemen aren’t as likely to rub your nose in it with eye catching numbers on fantasy football.

Much of what they do goes unnoticed, so this isn’t going to be like Greg Olsen catching 20 TDs a year in Carolina or Robbie Gould being almost perfect with the boot in San Francisco.

Extra point: excited about the Justin Fields draft pick for the Bears?

I'm trying not to be as the Bears have got everyone’s hopes up before only to leave us all disappointed.

On paper it’s a great pick and (for once) they did everything right in trading up to get him, but Chicago’s history at quarterback is, quite frankly, disgusting. They haven’t had a star at the position since Sid Luckman, who left in 1950!

If Fields pans out how everyone hopes he’ll be the first franchise quarterback most Bears fans have seen in their lifetimes. Which is truly pathetic when you think about it. So hopefully he’ll be the man but the Bears seem to be jinxed at the quarterback position so I’ll wait and see before allowing myself to believe again.