The Bears have the oldest O-Line in the NFL

[fleet]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mulligan ... 06.article

The Bears will field the oldest offensive line in football this season. Would it be more polite to say most veteran or most experienced?
''We might be the oldest, but we're also the best,'' offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said.

In what sounds like some kind of sinister countdown, left guard Ruben Brown is 35, right tackle Fred Miller 34, left tackle John Tait 32, center Olin Kreutz 30 and right guard Roberto Garza 28. The top two reserves are tackle John St. Clair, 30, and guard Terrence Metcalf, 29.

Old but experienced
The average age of the Bears' starting five is 31.8, which puts them ahead of Denver (31.6), Kansas City (31.2) and Washington (30.2). All five of the Chiefs' projected starters are at least 30, while the Redskins have four starters at least 30 and center Casey Rabach, who will hit that age in September. Only four teams project a starting lineup devoid of at least one starting offensive lineman 30 or older: Arizona, Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit.
Where the Bears' offensive line really stands alone is in years of experience and games started. While 18 of the league's 32 offensive lines start at least one player with a minimum of 10 years of NFL experience, the Bears' five starters combine for 51 seasons with a league-high 603 combined starts.

but they sure remind me of Jimbo, Hilgy, Thayer, Bortz, and VanHorn.

Can't help but to worry about rebuilding this line soon though. Probably with kids, and with picks at the bottom of rounds. They can't sign FA O-Linemen any more.
You know the money for the Offense is going to be tied up in the skill positions soon, And as it is, the Bears might not be able to pay Berrian if he has a great year. They'll have to pay Grossman, redo Urlacher, resign Harris etc. You can suresee why they can't long term Briggs

I'm wondering where the Bears are going to unload salary just for taking care of Berrian, Grossman, Harris and Urlacher. Maybe Moose and 'Wale.

You might expect the Bears to be heavily drafting O-Linemen starting next season. You might also expect the Bears to begin to transfer money out of the O-Line into the skill positions by next year

[chibearsfan]

I think we may see some changes after this year to resign Harris, Grossman (pending a good year), and Berrian. I'm not so hot on extending Urlacher's contract as we already have him long term. I could see Wale being outta here soon along with Brown. Hopefully Anderson, Bazuin, and a rookie can fill that void. Moose may also be gone to make room for the new class of Berrian, Bradley, Hester and Davis (although neither of those last 3 should demand new contract, maybe Hester). Bottom line is we got plenty of aging contracts who are expendable for the younger guys.

[Howling Mad]

Wale and Brown will end up going and hopefully we can get an O linemen along with the transaction.

Moose is someone I would like to have around for the young guys, I can deff see him restructuring his contract; hes a pro he would do it.

[NoSkyy]

Lucky for us, Olin Kreutz is willing to teach and mentor young offensive lineman. I think that's a great advantage of an old offensive line.

[tclg]

Hopefully we can transition to a younger line one position at a time

[Cliff Levingston]

This is why Cliff Levingston wanted some good backups in the offseason. Metcalf and St. Clair = not so good backups.

If Tait or Kruetz go down, we're ficked.

[chibearsfan]

[quote="Cliff Levingston"]This is why Cliff Levingston wanted some good backups in the offseason. Metcalf and St. Clair = not so good backups.

If Tait or Kruetz go down, we're ficked.[/quote]

Yeah, true.

[transplant]

This is why Cliff Levingston wanted some good backups in the offseason. Metcalf and St. Clair = not so good backups.

If Tait or Kruetz go down, we're ficked.

They're about as good as most backup linemen, but yeah, Tait and Kruetz need to stay healthy.