Chicago Bears Sign G Amini Silatolu, Cody Whitehair to Center?

The Chicago Bears made what, on the surface, appears to be a minor move. They signed G Amini Silatolu to a one-year contract. Silatolu spent the last four seasons with the Carolina Panthers after being drafted in the second round by Carolina in the 2012 NFL Draft.

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Silatolu is a good player that has the ability to start. His problem is that he has missed massive amounts of time due to injury. He has suffered not one, but two torn ACLs. Injuries have caused him to miss thirty games over the past three seasons.

But this is a very nice under-the-radar signing by Ryan Pace and the front office. If Silatolu continues to struggle with injuries, or if his body shows that it is not recovering from the second ACL injury (which occurred November of 2015) then the Bears can move on without any impact on their roster.

However, if Silatolu can stay healthy and can return to the form and ability he had at the beginning of his career, Silatolu will almost certainly start on the Bears line and has the talent to be the second best player on the line (behind Kyle Long). Whether Silatolu can be that successful may be a bit of a long shot, but he absolutely has the ability to contribute on the offensive line and potentially start.

One interesting development that has come from this signing comes from the Chicago Tribune‘s Brad Biggs who sent out this tweet.

This is a serious surprise. While it’s no shock that the Bears had no depth at center behind Hroniss Grasu, the fact that they are hoping Cody Whitehair can win the center job is alarming. Whitehair is a versatile offensive lineman that has been projected by most to be an NFL guard, but has center experience and played plenty of tackle in college. So while Whitehair has the skill set to play center, what this means is the Bears have lost a lot of faith in Grasu who the Bears spent a third round pick on last season, and must not be certain if he is their center of the future.

While several of Pace’s rookies looked good last season, Grasu did struggle frequently with his opportunities last season. The Bears needed him to gain a lot of size in strength during the offseason. Grasu has gained twenty pounds of “good weight” but whether that is enough is still up for debate.

At a minimum, it means that center and left guard are a wide open competition this camp and the performance of Grasu, Whitehair, Silatolu and even veteran Ted Larsen will be critical as to who starts, who earns roster spots and who is given their walking papers.

Again, these question marks again show the lack of foresight when the Bears released Matt Slauson. We’ve heard the statements that Slauson didn’t fit the blocking scheme, but he had a reasonable salary and proved last season he could play center and play it well. The Bears right now have serious question marks on the interior of their offensive line and knowing they had Slauson to either play guard or center would have put John Fox and the rest of the coaching staff at ease with that in their back pocket.

That was then and this is now. Slauson is gone and the Bears have to make due with their current roster. Hopefully Silatolu can stay healthy and give the Bears another reliable veteran on their offensive line, but if he is injured and Grasu fails to step up this season, the Bears offensive line is going to have a serious hole that they may not be able to repair in 2016.

Bill Zimmerman is an editor and featured writer for FanSided‘s BearGogglesOn. Like his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter for more news and interaction.