5 Chicago Bears failing to live up to expectations
2. Lucas Patrick is the Chicago Bears’ biggest letdown in free agency
When the Chicago Bears signed Lucas Patrick, the narrative that was sold was that they found their center of the future at a discount. Because Luke Getsy had inside information about Lucas Patrick, and because he did so well with Aaron Rodgers center, it was a lock that Patrick would be the long-term solution and battery mate for Justin Fields.
How many snaps has Lucas Patrick taken at center this season? That in itself is a disappointment. Of course, some of this can be excused from him as well. He was incapable of snapping a football until just a few weeks ago.
Now, the coaching staff has been choosing continuity over Patrick at center. So far, that has been a bad decision for the coaching staff, and it has Patrick failing to meet his expectations.
Still, while the hope is that Patrick is better at center, he has been pretty bad at guard, making it even hard to make the move. If anything, they need to move Patrick to the bench at this point.
To be fair, he came back from his injury, was asked to change positions and do it in a rotation. Then, a few weeks into that experiment they asked him to change positions again.
Perhaps the Chicago Bears can make one more change and get him back to center, where we thought he would play all season. Some of this is on him, but the Bears coaching staff is no helping Patrick right now, either.