Chicago Bears Offseason Targets: The Offensive Line

I am going to spend this whole slide on centers. I think that Bears’ fans can relate to what they saw out of the center position this season. Quite often, there were miscues by Bears’ centers, which included Cody Whitehair and Hroniss Grasu, that gave the Bears’ offensive line some problems. It was strange because after playing center well the previous season, Whitehair seemed to fall apart and not play nearly as well in 2017. When he was forced to move to guard because of injuries, he played good. If he plays well at guard, then that’s where he needs to stay.

Grasu is undersized at center and hasn’t played well. Granted, he has been hurt but when he’s been in the lineup, he has struggled. He may not be around when the smoke clears and training camp is over this coming season. Chicago needs to plan for the center position because it affects the offense much more than anyone realizes. We saw what it did in 2017 and we don’t want the same thing to happen in 2018.

Should the Bears want to draft a center, which is possible, then they might let Grasu walk. What they might be able to do is sign a center in free agency and then draft one to develop and replace the player they sign. We will look more at free agent possibilities in another slide but for now, let’s think about who the Bears could draft at center to help themselves out.

The 2018 NFL Draft has some decent center prospects in it and one of these prospects may work out well for the Bears. You wouldn’t expect them to draft a center in the first couple rounds, but they might think of taking someone with a later round pick to develop. This player wouldn’t be a starter right away, so the Bears don’t want to have that big of an investment through the draft in him. After looking at some of the centers available, there have been three identified as possible fits for the Bears. They include Auburn’s Austin Golson, Iowa’s Sean Welsh (a guard who could convert to center) and Washington’s Coleman Shelton.

Any of these three guys would help the Bears out, but not right away.

If Chicago were smart, they would draft a center and find a free agent to have the rookie learn from. Moving Whitehair to one of the guard spots should Sitton retire would work. They might also want to keep Whitehair as the center then have a draftee learn behind him while we wait for Sitton to retire. And it’s always a good idea to have some extra depth in case of an injury.

This is what the Bears should consider.