Grading Ryan Poles 10 biggest free agent moves as Chicago Bears GM

4. Lucas Patrick

Lucas Patrick signed a two-year, $8M deal with the Chicago Bears this offseason. It would be easy to lean towards incomplete over anything when grading his year with the Bears. They signed him to be their center but he played 10 snaps at the spot all season.

He only had 259 snaps at other positions, but he did spend the majority of his season at guard. Even this was injury-related though, as a broken thumb prevented him from snapping, so he had to play guard.

The issue here is that he was pretty rough at guard. At right guard, all he was doing was blocking Teven Jenkins, who was better than Patrick from snap one through the end of their split.

Then, at left guard, he was filling in for Cody Whitehair, and looked like it was his third position of the season. So, they hardly saw him at center, but when they saw him at guard, there was no promise that he would be better at center.

Now, the Bears will have a tough decision to make. After injuries derailed his season they can save nearly $4M this offseason if they want to let him go. Of course, it would create a hole in the line. Still, they cannot go into the season looking at him as a starter, so $4M for depth is a bit a risk as well. The poor play and the fact that they’re now in a tough spot with his contract hurt his grade.

Lucas Patrick signing grade: D+