Did Cody Whitehair play his last snap with Chicago Bears?

The Chicago Bears have not announced anything yet, but reports are circulating that Cody Whitehair suffered an injury that will likely put him out for the rest of the season. When you look at the contract situation of Whitehair, it may also be the last time he suited up for the team.

The Chicago Bears could designate Whitehair a post-June 1 release, and it would save the team $9.9M in cap space. They would eat $4.2 in dead cap, but the trade-off would be worth it. The team would not have that space until June, but they could hold off on signing their draft class until the summer, and use his cap hit to do so.

It is not as simple as saving nearly $10M in cap space, but the other factors added in start to make it an easy call. Whitehair is going to be 31, and while that is not old in human years, in the NFL when most of the men are in their 20s, it is tough to keep up.

We have seen that this season, as Whitehair has posted the worst playing of his career. That could be a culmination of the injuries starting to add on top of each other.

Whitehair was excellent through his first four seasons with the Chicago Bears, which is what earned him the extension. However, in 2020, the ironman run took a hit. Whitehair was obviously playing through small nicks throughout his career, as any NFL player does.

Still, it seemed to add up in 2020, and after he tried to play through it, his calf finally had enough. You could argue that Whitehair may have even come back too soon from that injury. His 2021 appeared to be impacted as well before the injury has once again set in during the 2022 season.

One of the oddest things that Ryan Pace did was give Danny Trevathan an extension despite the fact that he was getting older and had a long history of injury. That move killed the Bears’ cap and should be a shining example of what not to do.

Ryan Poles has to view that example as a normal occurrence when thinking of Whitehair and its role moving forward. A player who is aging and with injury concerns does not all of a sudden look healthy and spry the following season. In most cases, that player will be a step slower and more likely to go down once again.

Whitehair was a great draft pick and was a legitimate starter from 2016-2019. However, 2020-2022 has not been the same player, and he is unlikely to be here for 2023 because of that.