🔥 HOT NEWS: Joe Thuney’s Impact Goes Beyond Stats, and the League Is Catching On ⚡.DH

The NFL rarely stops to celebrate the men who make everything else possible.

Quarterbacks get the credit. Skill players get the highlights. Defensive stars get the drama. Offensive linemen—especially guards—are usually noticed only when something goes wrong.

This week, that silence broke.

Chicago Bears left guard Joe Thuney has been named a finalist for the NFL’s inaugural Protector of the Year award, a distinction that doesn’t just recognize excellence—it reframes the Bears’ entire 2025 season.

Because if you want to understand how Chicago went from chaos to control, this is where you start.

Thuney wasn’t flashy in his first year with the Bears. He didn’t seek attention. He didn’t change his routine. He simply showed up every week and did what elite linemen do: erased problems before they reached the stat sheet.

That’s exactly what this award is designed to honor.

Created with the backing of offensive linemen and selected by an elite committee of former All-Pros and Hall of Famers, the Protector of the Year award doesn’t care about reputation. It cares about film. About consistency. About durability. About how often a lineman wins snaps against elite competition without needing help.

And Joe Thuney checked every box.

Bears head coach Ben Johnson called him “the model of consistency,” a phrase that sounds generic until you realize how rare it actually is at the NFL level. Thuney wasn’t great in stretches—he was reliable every single week. Same technique. Same preparation. Same outcome.

That steadiness quietly transformed Chicago’s offense.

Behind Thuney and a rebuilt offensive line, the Bears finished the 2025 regular season with the fewest giveaways in the league. They ranked third in rushing. They became the only NFL team with multiple rushers eclipsing 750 yards. And most importantly, they protected their franchise quarterback.

Caleb Williams was sacked just 24 times in 2025—a staggering drop from the 68 sacks he absorbed as a rookie. That’s not scheme alone. That’s trust in the interior. That’s protection that holds long enough for quarterbacks to breathe, reset, and see the field clearly.

Williams didn’t just survive this season—he flourished. And that doesn’t happen without someone anchoring the pocket.

Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle emphasized Thuney’s influence off the field as much as on it. His voice in the meeting room. His experience in winning organizations. His willingness to teach without ego.

Thuney has been to Super Bowls. He’s won divisions almost everywhere he’s played. He knows what winning football looks like—and more importantly, what it requires daily.

That knowledge has weight in a young locker room.

The other finalists—Penei Sewell, Creed Humphrey, Garett Bolles, Quinn Meinerz, and Aaron Brewer—underscore how exclusive this list is. This isn’t a popularity contest. It’s a technical honor judged by players who lived the position.

And that’s why Thuney’s nomination matters.

It’s not just a personal accolade. It’s a signal.

A signal that Chicago’s transformation wasn’t accidental. That the Bears didn’t just get better—they got sturdier. Smarter. Harder to disrupt. The kind of team that wins late because the foundation doesn’t crack.

The winner will be announced at NFL Honors on February 5. Whether Thuney takes home the trophy or not, the message is already clear.

The NFL noticed what Bears fans felt all season.

The rebuild didn’t start with fireworks.

It started with protection.