{"id":552451,"date":"2026-01-29T21:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552451\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:34:20","slug":"bears-guard-joe-thuney-up-for-first-ever-nfl-blocking-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552451\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears guard Joe Thuney up for first-ever NFL blocking award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bears<\/a> guard Joe Thuney was one of six finalists named for the NFL\u2019s first Protector of the Year Award, given for excellent offensive line play, on Thursday. The winner will be announced next week at NFL Honors, the league\u2019s Super Bowl week awards show.<\/p>\n

The Protector of the Year was a concept pushed by Bills tackle Dion Dawkins. The winner is picked by a committee of six former star offensive linemen.<\/p>\n

The five other finalists are Broncos tackle Garrett Bolles, Lions tackle Penei Sewell,, Dolphins center Aaron Brewer, Chiefs center Creed Humphrey and Broncos guard Quinn Meinerz.<\/p>\n

The Bears<\/a> traded for Thuney in March and quickly gave him a contract extension. He was named to the Pro Bowl for the fourth consecutive season after playing all but five snaps for the Bears this season. Thuney was named a first-team All-Pro for the third time in his career. The Bears moved him to tackle for their playoff loss against the Rams, and he fared well.<\/p>\n

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\"Senior<\/p>\n

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Williams\u2019 high-wire act of a season \u2014 he led the Bears to seven fourth-quarter comebacks and posted even more did-you-just-see-that plays \u2014 has changed the way the Bears are viewed around the league. And among those who are about to enter it.<\/p>\n

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read<\/p>\n

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\"Mississippi<\/p>\n

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The most intriguing offensive lineman at the Senior Bowl didn\u2019t play high school football.<\/p>\n

[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
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\"Senior<\/p>\n

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Edge rusher is high on the Bears\u2019 list of upgrades, be it in the draft, in free agency or via trade.<\/p>\n

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read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bears guard Joe Thuney was one of six finalists named for the NFL\u2019s first Protector of the Year…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":552452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-552451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115980538189822046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}