Matt Pryor’s departure to Philadelphia weakens Bears’ depth at guard
Matt Pryor, a key backup last season, is leaving the Bears to join the Philadelphia Eagles, leaving the reserve group behind the team’s new starting guards thinner. One of the surprising aspects of last year’s underperforming Bears offensive line was how some of the backups actually outperformed the starters.
While these backups weren’t necessarily viewed as future starters, they filled in as stopgaps or long-term backups in the league.
On Thursday, Pryor became the latest to leave the team in free agency when he agreed to terms with the Eagles, his former team. The Bears could have easily kept Pryor if they wanted to, but his departure seems to signal a shift as the team transitions to a new blocking scheme. Nonetheless, Pryor had a role on the team.
The 30-year-old, 6-foot-7, 332-pound guard struggled as a pass blocker, allowing seven sacks and 24 penalties. His sack total ranked him 130th out of 135 guards in sack prevention, according to Pro Football Focus. However, PFF did rate him with the second-best pass blocking grade of his career.
Pryor played a career-high 1,005 snaps last season, with 895 of them at right guard, and made 15 starts after starter Nate Davis struggled. He also played one snap at left tackle and 59 at right tackle.
The Eagles just made a SNEAKY GOOD move in NFL Free Agency by bringing back OL Matt Pryor.
Jason Kelce just shared his concerns this morning about the Eagles OL depth. Pryor will help there. He played very well in 15 starts last season for the Bears at guard.
Drafted by the… pic.twitter.com/IiPKZO9D3c
— Chase Senior (@Chase_Senior) March 27, 2025
Bill Murray, another backup guard who had to step in due to Teven Jenkins’ injuries, earned a higher PFF grade than Pryor in his brief stint before a season-ending injury.
Although the Bears aren’t entirely short on depth behind their new starting guards, Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson, with Murray, Ryan Bates (who can play both guard and center), and backup center Doug Kramer (who has experience at guard), the team still needs to add at least one more backup guard in the draft. Signing another lineman in free agency is also possible, but with only $9.2 million in available cap space, according to Overthecap.com, the Bears are limited in their options.
Pryor, who began his career with the Eagles, also spent time with the Colts and 49ers before his lone season with the Bears.
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