Offensive lineman Larry Borom, a fifth-round choice of the Bears in 2021, has appeared in 39 games for Chicago over his first three seasons in the league, starting 23 of them. It is fair to wonder, however, whether he will remain in the Windy City for his platform campaign in 2024.
As Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune writes, the playing time that Borom accrued allowed him to hit the escalator in his rookie contract that boosted his 2024 salary to $3.12MM. Biggs suggests that payout may be too rich for the Bears’ blood, and that the team could look to trade the 25-year-old blocker. If GM Ryan Poles adds an O-lineman or two in the upcoming draft, that could further squeeze Borom out of the picture.
Borom has taken most of his NFL snaps at the tackle positions, and as such, he is in line to compete with new acquisitions Jake Curhan and Matt Pryor for the swing tackle role behind starters Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright. However, Borom has never played especially well at the professional level, and the 2023 season may have been the worst of his young career.
Last season, the Missouri product played 408 snaps on the blindside, 225 of which were pass-blocking opportunities. He conceded 25 total pressures and allowed six hits, including three sacks. He was also charged with five penalties, and in all, Pro Football Focus assigned him an abysmal grade of 48.0. That made Borom the eighth-worst OT out of 81 qualifed players.
Nonetheless, he does have the versatility to line up at guard as well as tackle, and if he performs well in training camp this summer, his salary is not so high that the Bears could not keep him around as experienced depth at multiple positions. That is especially true since Jones, the starting LT, landed on injured reserve last season, and since starting LG Teven Jenkins has struggled with injuries throughout his career.
Borom was selected by the Bears’ prior regime, while Curhan has ties to current OC Shane Waldron and Pryor was with the Colts when head coach Matt Eberflus was serving as Indianapolis’ defensive coordinator. Given that, and given Borom’s generally lackluster play, a trade is not out of the question.
Biggs suggests a late-round pick or a pick swap would be the most likely return if Chicago looks to move Borom.
Poles plans on staking the Bears future on Williams but his OL payroll currently ranks just 21st in the league according to Spotrac. I’m not a GM but my approach would be to spend more to keep that first overall pick out of harms way.
Yea I still can’t understand not paying the money to get Cushenberry instead of rolling the dice on two less established Centers. Considering Poles history of thinking Patrick and Whitehair were acceptable last year I wouldn’t be confident in his ability to identify competent centers.
I really, really wanted Lloyd Cushenberry but honestly, I’m pretty happy that we found not one but two actual upgrades on both of Lucas Patrick and a very washed Cody Whitehair.
Now, obviously neither of Coleman Shelton or Ryan Bates are “household names,” but Shelton has been nothing but dependable, sturdy, and pretty good from what I’ve seen when I’ve watched the Rams (which is more than you would think for the average Bears fan as I live in Nevada) and also from what I’ve read from die-hard Rams fans.
Bates, I’ll admit that I really haven’t gone out of my way to watch nor have I noticed him stand out *when I have watched Bills games in rhe past.”. Why I feel confident in him is because Poles has prioritized making a run to acquire him each offseason since taking over for Ryan Pace. Poles must feel pretty good about him, though, I do think Shelton will likely start in week one and hopefully holds onto the job.
In fairness, they have two solid tackles and one solid guard on rookie deals, which is a pretty good reason for their line spending to not be all that high.
They are gonna draft JC Latham at 9 and Tanner Bortellini at 75, there isn’t enough available targets for them to draft a top 10 receiver, DJ Keenan Kmet Everett Swift is a lot of targets if you do the math on it, just can’t see them rating a WR as more valuable than a tackle they believe is high quality in this situation
Latham is a RT they’d have to convert to LT and 9 is too high for him. If they stay there, it has to be a plug and play starter. Keenan will miss 4-5 games like he has for the last 2 seasons and they have nothing beyond he and Moore in the WR room worth a spit. If Alt is there, that’s one thing, but otherwise it’s gotta be one of the top 3 WRs, DL or Edge, or a trade back. IMO…
God I hope so. He’s horrible.
If’n they suck at O-line why not try em at D-line? Pretty sure they’ve experienced all the various ‘moves’ made by the dudes they can’t block.
Is there a trade market for no name bums?
Who would of thought Larry Borom would have gotten his own article?
Talk about a fluff article. If you trade him you’re getting a 5th or 6th round pick to just reset the salary clock. If you cut him it cost you $83K.
That’s on the optimistic side, too, and that’s coming from someone who believed he was going to be quite an asset after we drafted him. I liked what I seen from him early in his career but he’s progressively gotten worse each year.
It’s a shame really…
Why would anybody give up anything of value for Larry Borom? He suck-diddly-ucks. If the Bears were to cut him, I doubt he would do any better than landing on somebody’s practice squad. I don’t see anybody needing him for the 53-man roster, let alone giving up something of value.