The Chicago Bears would be fools to not make this change ahead of the Raiders game
As it stands, the rumored starting offensive line combination for the Chicago Bears this week is Larry Borom at left tackle, Cody Whitehair at left guard, Lucas Patrick at center, Teven Jenkins at right guard and Darnell Wright at left tackle. Well, I think that the Bears need to make another change for the Raiders game on Sunday.
If you watched last week's performance against the Vikings and didn't notice the issues with the center-to-quarterback exchange, then I'm guessing you are partially blind or only watch when the Chicago Bears are on defense. It started with Cody Whitehair. Whitehair has always had issues with snapping the football, but last week was by far the worst I have seen from him. One or two per game is one thing, but there were over 10 bad snaps last week.
When a center makes a bad snap while in shotgun, it causes the quarterback to have to move his eyes, throwing off his footwork and timing. This is not something that can happen consistently or the offense will never succeed. It keeps the offense out of rhythm. Whitehair was essentially benched in the third quarter and Lucas Patrick came in to snap instead. Although Patrick was better, he too wasn't great. In fact, it was a bad snap that took place on the Tyson Bagent interception -- not that it was directly correlated.
According to David Haugh of 670 The Score, the Chicago Bears have seen 30 different offensive line combinations since Matt Eberflus took over as head coach. That's not a great stat. Injuries obviously have played a part in that, but not having a center you can count on makes it difficult as well. Last year it was a rotation of Sam Mustipher and Lucas Patrick. Mustipher struggled early but improved as the season went on. He moved on to play for Baltimore (currently starting), while Patrick was retained instead of cut. Here we are again with Whitehair and Patrick, yet, I am here to tell you that I want to see a 31st combination on Sunday.
The Chicago Bears should start Doug Kramer on Sunday vs. the Raiders
Yep. Doug Kramer was activated from injured reserve. He practiced all week in full and although he's essentially a rookie (missed all of last year due to an injury), I still trust his snapping more than Whitehair or Patrick. This won't happen though. The team is going to use Patrick at center. It's what they do. I've had enough of Matt Eberflus and even Chris Morgan. Like, what are they thinking about each week? Remember the Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins rotation last year. Why? How do you not see and start your best linemen? I question their judgment. Give me Kramer and let's see what happens.
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What I can tell you is that it cannot look any worse than we have seen in the last couple of weeks. This is more than a snapping issue. The blocking wasn't fantastic either. I'm sure you have all seen the Cody Whitehair blocking Ja'Tyre Carter play by now. How does this happen? Yet, many out there still want to blame the quarterback. It's a joke. The Chicago Bears should start Doug Kramer at center and give him the opportunity to prove he is the best center on this team. Then, if Ryan Poles is still the general manager in 2024 (should be), he must fix the center position. It was a miss this season.