Ten years from now too many Chicago Bears fans will forget about Cody Whitehair, and how good he was. From the time he was drafted in 2016 through 2019 Whitehair was the most consistent player on the roster.
They asked him to move from guard to center, back to center, and of course back to guard, and he never wavered. He made one Pro Bowl in 2018, probably the peak of his playing powers. However, despite an ironman-like four-year run that should gain him respect from the fans, the last three seasons have been anything but.
In 2020, it was the first kink in his armor. Whitehair started to play poorly, and you knew that something was up, because he was never the problem. That is when he missed his first start and wound up missing two in the season. Still, he also played two games with the injury before missing time, and probably came back a game or two too soon as well. A season with 14 starts was scarred by a small handful of them being the worst of his career.
In 2021 the hope was that he would improve, but the reality was that the 2020 injury may have sapped him of the top-end ability that he had. Whitehair wound up playing the entire season, but had his worst rate in pass blocking, and allowed the most hurries and sacks of his career.
He looked much closer to the 2020 version than the player that he was before. While the 49ers’ defensive line is stellar, he opened his season with a few struggles against Arik Armstead. He turned things around, and the Texans game was his best, but he left the fourth game of the 30-year-old season with an injury.
Matt Eberflus mentioned that Whitehair is going to miss some time, but should be back for the end of the season. We do not know how many games he will miss, but it does not sound good. Beyond that, this injury may end any chance that he had of sticking with the team beyond this year.
His salary is easy to move on from, and the team is looking to get younger, not keep players from the past regime. Whitehair will not go down as an all-time great, but he was a good player for a consistent run.
Had the Chicago Bears stuck him in one spot, and let him develop who knows what his reputation would have been? Still, like most endings in the NFL, it ends sadly, too early, and due to injuries. There are probably just a small handful of games left for Whitehair on the Chicago Bears roster.