Assessing Chicago Bears upgrade from Sam Mustipher to Lucas Patrick
The Chicago Bears went out and got someone that they anticipate to be the starting center next season. The team signed Lucas Patrick from the Green Bay Packers, which means he has a good relationship with Luke Getsy.
The relationship is obvious, but the Bears are hoping he brings more of an upgrade on the field. Last season the team relied on Sam Mustipher to be their starting center, and are thinking that Patrick should be a solid upgrade.
What is interesting to note is that last season was the first year that Patrick started at center full time, and the same can be said for Mustipher. With that in mind, how did the two compare?
Comparing Sam Mustipher to Lucas Patrick with Chicago Bears
Last season Mustipher took 1,121 snaps at center while Patrick took 967 snaps.
According to PFF, Patrick is an upgrade across the board. In pass blocking, Patrick had a 64.3 grade, which would be up from 61.7. In run blocking, he had a 54.2 grade compared to 47.5 from Mustipher. lastly, his overall grade was 57.5 while Mustipher’s was 51.8.
PFF grades only mean so much, but on top of that, there are some raw stats in the favor of Lucas Patrick as well. Last season he only allowed 21 pressures compared to 28 from Mustipher.
The difference in snaps played matters, but Mustipger allowed pressure on 2.5% of his pass blocking snaps, while Patrick was allowing a pressure 2.2% of the time.
The difference in familiarity
On the field, he is an obvious upgrade, but there is more to it with the connection to Luke Getsy. Justin Fields will be learning his second offense in as many years. If it were Fields and Mustipher learning a new offense together it would be a much great challenge than Patrick coming in with a strong familiarity.
He can help Fields get the communication down, and that step up from Patrick should help their trust and relationship together. If Patrick and Fields can grow into a symbiotic relationship it will go so much further than any stat or grade can show you.
dark. Next. Did the Bears overpay Justin Jones?
The Chicago Bears are hoping that Getsy knows Patrick well enough that they are going to get much more out of him than many expect.