Cody Whitehair may have found his new home on the Chicago Bears line
Over the course of the 2020 season, Cody Whitehair was playing some of the worst football of his career. There were questionable players beside him, and he was dealing with a calf injury himself. Still, in his five-year career, he was not playing worse than he had been over the few weeks leading up to the Chicago Bears bye week.
That all changed after the bye. One could argue that Whitehair got healthier. It also may have had to do with moving from center to guard. Whitehair was always good at center, but has always been better at guard. After struggling in the Packers game, the past three weeks have been his best three weeks of his 2020 season.
He has not allowed a single pressure and the games against the Lions and Texas were some of the best in his career, let alone 2020.
Whitehair struggled with Jaeel Johnson at times in their most recent game, but it did not take away from what turned into a dominant performance. Take a look at the play below, which encapsulates the progression we have seen from Whitehair in the previous three weeks.
As we have noted with Mitch Trubisky and the team in general, it has to be added that the level of competition is not sky-high. However, while we have not seen Trubisky play at an All-Pro level at any point, we do know that Whitehair has that type of ceiling in that right spot.
All of a sudden Sam Mustipher is becoming a trusted and center and James Daniels will come back and add to Alex Bars to create a strong interior. The reality is that Whitehair is going to have to stay at guard moving forward.
It is clear that it brings out the best in Whitehair and while Whitehair can play center, it takes away from getting him firing off of the football, and is not for the best.
The interesting piece will be how James Daniels fits coming off of injury, struggling at center, and only playing left guard so far, the same spot Whitehair is excelling at. Still, nothing going forward should prevent the Bears from keeping Whitehair at guard.