The Chicago Bears are benching their most experienced offensive lineman, Cody Whitehair, from their starting lineup against the Detroit Lions in Week 11.
During his November 15 press conference, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus revealed the team would be changing its offensive line’s starting alignment again now that right guard Nate Davis has returned from injury. He confirmed Davis would play right guard and that Teven Jenkins — his temporary replacement — would return to the left side.
More notably, though, Eberflus also said Lucas Patrick would be their starting center, meaning Whitehair — an eight-year veteran for the Bears — is moving to the bench.
“Those are always hard [conversations] when you get back to full strength,” Eberflus said of Whitehair. “Cody has been a true pro, obviously a captain here for many years and had a great long career and is still going to continue to help us as we go. That’s our starting lineup for this week and, you know, things can happen like that and he’s back in the mix at center, guard, wherever. We’re fortunate we have the flexibility to do that.”
Cody Whitehair’s Play Has Reached Career-Low Levels
Whitehair has started in every game he has played (117) for the Bears over the past eight years, playing more than 3,000 snaps at both center and left guard. His versatility is one of the main reasons why the Bears declined to add a new center during the 2023 offseason, having given them confidence that he and Patrick could hold things down.
Unfortunately, the 2016 second-round pick has struggled to play up to standards in either role for the Bears over the first 10 games of the 2023 season. According to Pro Football Focus, Whitehair is the second-lowest-graded overall blocker (44.7) on the roster behind only running back Travis Homer, who has played six offensive snaps.
More troublesome has been Whitehair’s shortcomings as a run-blocker. While his inconsistent pass-blocking has been acceptable, even good, at times, he has regularly struggled to assist the run game and even been knocked over into teammates a few times on the year, including in the most recent game against the Carolina Panthers.
The Bears would certainly prefer to be in a situation where their highest-paid offensive lineman — with a $14.1 million cap hit in 2023 — is a starter, but benching him in favor of Jenkins felt inevitable once they cleared Davis to return to the field again.
How Much Can Bears Trust Lucas Patrick at Center?
The Bears’ decision to bench Whitehair is not too surprising. They needed to bench someone from the interior of their line so that they could re-insert their two best guards — Jenkins and Davis — into the starting lineup, and Patrick has been the better center.
At the same time, there are reasons to doubt whether Patrick can get the job done.
Patrick has played more consistently than Whitehair over the first 10 games of the 2023 season, particularly as a run-blocker, but he has also faced his share of struggles, too. Opposing defensive linemen frequently bully him on pass-blocking snaps, sometimes to the point of pushing him into his quarterback or his fellow offensive linemen. According to Pro Football Focus, he has still not directly given up a sack on the year, but there have been instances where his ineffectiveness led to collapses elsewhere on the line.
Patrick has also struggled with the consistency of his snaps. On shotgun snaps, he has struggled to get the ball back to his quarterbacks, either snapping them over their heads or shaking them to the sides. To the quarterbacks’ credit, they have adjusted to some of Patrick’s bad snaps and salvaged several plays that had “uh oh” written all over them, but it is something that could continue to be a problem as the season continues.
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Bears Bench Struggling $14 Million Starter Ahead of Lions Matchup